


Selfish Sacrifices

by PhantomDreamshade



Series: A Glimpse of Sun [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Frisk Has Issues, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Reader Is Not Frisk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-02 10:38:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 25,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12725010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomDreamshade/pseuds/PhantomDreamshade
Summary: Frisk has broken through the barrier dozens of times already, and yet their happy ending remains elusive. Their frustrations led to mistakes, and now they must deal with the consequences. With something dark lurking in the background, will they be able to mend burned bridges and finally bring the monsters to the surface once and for all?





	1. Timeline 12-H

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans wakes up from a nightmare with a nasty sense of déjà vu.

Sans woke up with a start. He looked down at his ribs; nothing was wrong with them. He could have sworn they had been in severe pain just a moment ago. Like they had been… slashed open? Staining his clothes with bone marrow?

He was completely fine, as far as he could tell. It must have been a nightmare. Or, maybe it was that life-draining sense of déjà vu he so often woke up with. There must have been another reset, and probably not a good one at that. It felt like he had been dying.

Maybe he had been.

Sans sighed and got out of bed. The sheets were a mess. He balled them up and left them on the bed to wash later; not that he would. He grabbed a t-shirt from the pile of dirty laundry in his room, slipped on his jacket and slippers, and then shuffled down the stairs.

“GOOD MORNING, BROTHER!” Papyrus shouted from around the corner. “YOU ARE UP SLIGHTLY EARLIER THAN USUAL! DID YOU REST WELL?” The taller skeleton appeared from the kitchen, wearing an apron and holding a pair of tongs.

“uh, sure, pap,” Sans said, distracted.

“HMM,” Papyrus said as he bent over to inspect Sans, only a few inches from his face. Sans leaned back a little, trying to hide the dark circles under his eye-sockets. “I KNOW SOMETHING THAT WILL WAKE YOU RIGHT UP. MY UNDERGROUND-FAMOUS SPAGHETTI! NYEH HEH HEH!” With that, Papyrus slung Sans over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried him into the kitchen. There was a fresh batch of pasta on the stove. The smell was… indescribable.

“i’m not really that hungry, papyrus,” Sans said as he was plopped to the ground, trying to escape the situation. Normally he would have just taken a shortcut to Grillby’s instead of walking down the stairs.

“NONSENSE! BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY, AND YOU WILL NOT BE SKIPPING IT! HERE, I HAVE A PLATE ALREADY MADE FOR YOU!” Papyrus proudly handed Sans a freshly-made plate of spaghetti. It looked like Sans was trapped.

Knowing there was no escape, Sans pulled out a bottle of ketchup from his jacket pocket and poured a generous helping onto the plate. Papyrus frowned disapprovingly.

“BROTHER, THAT IS SO UNHEALTHY!”

“what can i say, pap? i like ketchup.” Sans put a forkful into his mouth. It was better than last time. Not quite as crunchy, at least. “it’s really good, bro,” Sans said, forcing a smile despite the protests of his non-existent stomach. “thanks. i think i’ll stop by grillby’s for dinner, though.”

Papyrus sighed, exasperated. “YOU SHOULD TAKE MY OFFER TO GIVE YOU COOKING LESSONS. THEN, MAYBE, YOU COULD COOK YOUR OWN FOOD INSTEAD OF GOING TO GRILLBY’S ALL THE TIME.”

“i don’t think i could ketchup to your level, bro.”

“OH MY GOD!” Papyrus shouted as he stormed out of the kitchen. “I’M GOING TO MY STATION. YOU HAD BETTER BE AT YOURS WHEN I CHECK ON YOU! AND DO NOT LET ME FIND YOU SLEEPING!”

“sure thing, papyrus,” Sans said as Papyrus left the house. Sans dumped the rest of the plate into the trash can and tied up the garbage bag. Then he pulled out a bag of chips from his jacket pocket and dumped the contents in his mouth. Realizing he had already closed up the trash bag, he shrugged and tossed the empty chip bag into the empty half of the fridge. He took a shortcut to his station and pulled out his phone.

“Um, h-hello?” The other side of the line answered.

“hey, alphys. sleep well last night?”

“What? I-I don’t--”

“me neither. could you do me a favor and send me the most recent temporal-dimensional analysis from the lab? i need to check something.”

“Why w-would-- we haven’t used that machine since… n-nevermind. I’ll s-send them to your phone as soon as I c-can.”

“thanks, al. bye.”

Sans sat back and read one of his car magazines until his phone alerted him with a ding. He looked over the data.

Temporal Division 12-E 

Status: Ongoing 

Anomaly Total: 2 

Temporal Division 12-F 

Status: Ongoing 

Anomaly Total: 3 

Temporal Division 12-G 

Status: Error!-Type: Terminated 

Anomaly Total: 376 

Temporal Division 12-H 

Status: Current Timeline 

Anomaly Total: 0 

Sans put his phone down. The last timeline had ended. Permanently. That meant that he shouldn’t have woken up at all this morning. According to all of his calculations, the timelines should have stopped splitting once one was terminated. 12-G was supposed to be the end, yet here he was, in 12-H. For the first time in a long time, something unexpected had happened.

Some level of motivation began to well up inside of him, before being quashed by a wave of apathy. That just meant the resets would keep happening; there wasn’t anything he could do to change that. There was no point.

Sans walked off towards the Ruins entrance, deciding some knock-knock jokes might improve his sour mood. Just as he was about to rap his knuckles on the door, he heard voices coming from the Ruins.

“...kill you… room… stop me… final warning…”

The voice was muffled by distance, but it was definitely his pun partner. She sounded upset; for some reason, the scenario felt familiar. Sans decided to wait in the woods to see what happened.

The noise coming from the Ruins suddenly grew much louder. It sounded almost like a battle. Sans considered going in to see if everything was alright, but the woman behind the door had made it very clear that she didn’t want anyone entering the Ruins. Whatever was going on was none of Sans’ business. A few minutes passed, and the sounds died down. Eventually, the door slid open, and a small figure stepped out into the frigid air. Sans froze.

It was a human.

Reflexively, his magic flared. The human was young, maybe eleven or twelve. They walked slowly down the path, past Sans. Sans quelled his powers as he remembered the promise he had made. It was just a kid, he told himself. Something else told him that they were so much more than just a kid.

Sans followed behind them. He decided to pull a little prank, and used his magic to snap a large branch in the road; the kid looked back nervously and began walking faster. He teleported in and out of the path behind them to freak them out a little bit more. For some reason, he felt like they deserved it.

“Human,” he said as they approached the bridge, putting on his best deep-scary voice. “Don’t you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand.”

The human turned around. Sans could see that they were sweating despite the cold and their fists were clenched so tightly that their knuckles turned white. He felt a little guilty. Sans put his hand out, and the human shook it.

The sound of a whoopee cushion filled the air. The human, stiff with fear, finally let out a small chuckle. Not the reaction Sans was hoping for, but at least it was something.

“heheh... the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it’s ALWAYS funny,” Sans said as he put his hand back down. “anyways, you’re a human, right? that’s hilarious. i’m sans. sans the skeleton.”

Sans led the human to his station and had a mysteriously familiar (but still hilarious) conversation with Papyrus. The human didn’t react much to either Sans’ terrible puns or Papyrus’ antics, which unnerved Sans a little. It was almost as if they had seen the entire thing before.

Sans checked them covertly as they walked off after Papyrus. They had agreed to play along and cheer up Papyrus, which was one point in their favor, but something about them still put the skeleton on edge.

The Human - ATK 3 DEF 3

LV 1 

No Data Available 

Sans realized what had felt off about this human. He couldn’t read their face at all. He normally should have been able to glean _something_ about their intentions.

Still, it was hard to argue with a track record of LV 1. It was better than Sans could claim, at the very least. Regardless, Sans resolved to keep a close eye on them: he had a promise to keep, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Undertale belongs to Toby Fox.


	2. A Friend in Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus makes a new friend, and it's his job to make sure they're happy.

Papyrus was excited.

Not only had a human  _ finally _ come to the Underground, but they also were plunging through Papyrus’ puzzles with gusto. Or, at least, they were completing them rather quickly. Papyrus didn’t really know how to judge the expressions of a human, but it was probably a safe assumption that they were having a lot of fun. Not only that, but they had also resisted eating his spaghetti just so they could share it with him. That more than made up for the strange twinge of pain in his neck whenever he looked at them.

Eventually, however, came the time to capture the human. It was a bittersweet moment, but it had to be done. This was the only way he could become a Royal Guard, after all!

Papyrus initiated the battle, and the color of the world flickered out around them. The human stood there, presented in black and white but otherwise unchanged. Papyrus let them take their turn first; it was only polite.

The human selected their ACT menu.

The human says that you look very handsome in your battle body.

Oh.

The human  _ liked _ Papyrus.

Papyrus hadn’t expected that at all. He was very handsome, of course, as well as charming, cool, and an excellent chef, but still. He wasn’t sure how to feel; if someone liked you, that meant you had to go on a date with them, right?

“LET’S DATE L-LATER! AFTER I CAPTURE YOU!” Papyrus decided, firing a simple attack. The human dodged it with ease. Date or no date, he still needed to capture a human so that Undyne would let him become a Royal Guard.

The human reached over to their menu and selected MERCY.

The Human is sparing you,

Papyrus’ screen informed him. They didn’t want to fight. Papyrus had to admit that he wasn't very fond of the idea either, but he had a job to do. 

“SO YOU WON’T FIGHT…” Papyrus said, confirming his assumption. The human nodded. “THEN, LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED BLUE ATTACK!”

Papyrus loosed a flurry of blue bone attacks before extending his magic over the human. They were forced to the ground, glowing dark blue. They hopped over his final attack gracefully.

No matter what attacks Papyrus threw at the human, the only thing they ever did with their turn was SPARE him. Papyrus started to question himself. He wanted to join the Royal Guard and be insanely popular, of course, but he doubted that he would get to see the human very often after they were sent to the capital.

Other than Sans, Undyne, and his flower friend, the human had been the first person to actually enjoy Papyrus’ puzzles, or his spaghetti. Well, Undyne didn’t care for his puzzles, but she did say they were well-constructed. She also loved his clever japes. Sure, it would be nice to have admirers, but… maybe a true friend was worth more than that. Papyrus’ resolve began to waver.

_ No _ , Papyrus thought to himself.  _ I’ve wanted to join the Royal Guard for as long as I can remember. I can’t give up on my lifelong dream now! _ Papyrus renewed his assault.

It became clear as the battle progressed that the human was very skilled at dodging. Very, very skilled at dodging. So skilled at dodging, in fact, that it was almost as if the human had trained for dodging Papyrus’ exact attack patterns for many hours.

Of course, that was ridiculous. They had met only recently. Still, the human’s skill was enough to warrant the use of Papyrus’ special attack. Or, it would have if that blasted dog hadn’t interfered. Maybe he should turn his capturing efforts away from humans and towards that annoying thing. It was a public menace.

The human was still standing, even after his extra-cool-but-still-normal replacement attack. They were breathing heavily, though; clearly that meant they were on the verge of collapse. No human could stand up to his impressive fighting skills for very long.

“WELL…! *HUFF* IT’S CLEAR… YOU CAN’T! *HUFF* DEFEAT ME! YEAH! I CAN SEE YOU SHAKING IN YOUR BOOTS!” Papyrus said. Metaphorically speaking, of course. The human wasn’t wearing boots.

He was so close, but… Papyrus couldn’t go through with it. Not after realizing how enamored the human was with him. It just wouldn’t feel right. “THEREFORE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ELECT TO GRANT YOU PITY! I WILL SPARE YOU, HUMAN! NOW’S YOUR CHANCE TO ACCEPT MY MERCY.”

The human did so, and color returned to the world. The battle was over.

Now Papyrus would have to deal with the consequences. Undyne would be disappointed in him, and that meant he would never be a Royal Guard. And if he wasn’t a Royal Guard, his friend quantity would remain… stagnant.

Papyrus hadn’t realized he had been voicing his thoughts out loud until the human spoke up. “I’d like to be your friend, Papyrus.”

“REALLY?” Papyrus exclaimed as he was pulled from his depressing thoughts. “YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS, WITH ME?” The human gave him a short nod. Of course! How could he have been so silly? Papyrus had just been thinking about how nice the human had been, and how their friendship had been worth more than all of the admiration Papyrus had predicted for himself.

A new friend was an excellent day’s work, Papyrus decided. Undyne might be a little miffed at first, but he was sure he could smooth things over with his irresistible charms. He would become a Royal Guard yet, even if it wasn’t today.

* * *

 

It was unfortunate that Papyrus’ date with the human did not end in true love, but it would have been far worse if he had not shared his true feelings. Still, Papyrus did not enjoy human’s sullen expression as he prepared to leave the room. The human had assured him that they were alright with the outcome of the date, so something else must have been bothering them. He was getting better at reading them after spending some time with them, and he was fairly certain that the human’s current face was what the face Sans had been wearing recently would look like if covered in skin.

Papyrus knew that Sans wouldn’t talk if he wasn’t inclined to, so the skeleton had been waiting patiently for his brother to come to him with his problems. Perhaps the human would be more receptive to some aid.

“HUMAN,” Papyrus said, walking back into the room slowly. “IS SOMETHING ELSE THE MATTER? AS YOUR NEW FRIEND, I WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO HELP YOU! I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I AM A WORLD-CLASS PROBLEM-SOLVER AS WELL AS AN EXCELLENT CONFIDANT!”

Papyrus hopped onto his race car bed and wrapped a friendly arm around their shoulders. They seemed a little surprised.

“I’m fine, Papyrus. Really,” they said. Papyrus groaned internally. His brother used the same evasion tactic; it was impossible to help someone when you didn’t know what was wrong!

“I UNDERSTAND IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO TALK ABOUT IT,” Papyrus sighed, “BUT IT IS ALRIGHT TO LET OTHERS HELP YOU WITH YOUR PROBLEMS SOMETIMES. I WILL GRANT YOU YOUR PRIVACY FOR NOW, BUT I ENCOURAGE YOU TO GET YOUR TROUBLES OFF OF YOUR CHEST. YOU HAVE MY PHONE NUMBER, SO FEEL FREE TO CONFIDE IN ME ANY TIME YOU WISH!”

The human smiled a bit and nodded. That was a little better, Papyrus supposed.  _ Perhaps Flowery can give me some advice on how to deal with this, _ Papyrus thought as he left the room.


	3. A Change in Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The human gives Sans a warning.

Sans invited the human to Grillby’s as they passed his second station. His opinion of them had dropped over the course of the day as he observed them; not because of any bad behavior, per se, but because of what he assumed they were capable of. They had made Papyrus really happy, though, so Sans decided just to play along with the charade. There was something he wanted to discuss with them.

“want some ketchup?” Sans asked after they had gotten some fries. He pulled a bottle out of his pocket as the human tossed one of the fries into their mouth.

“No,” the human said with a little glare. That was a little hostile; he was just offering them ketchup. Sans shrugged and chugged the bottle down. He continued to gush on his brother, and the kid listened patiently.

“oh yeah, i wanted to ask you something,” Sans said after finishing his story. “have you ever heard of a talking flower?”

The kid nodded, as if on cue. At this point, Sans was pretty confident in his assumption that this kid was the source of the resets. The reason they acted as if they had seen everything already was probably because they _had_ seen it all before. Sans paused before continuing to play along; the weird timeline shenanigans had him curious. It wouldn’t really matter in the end, anyway.

“you sure know a lot of things about this place for being new here,” Sans said, switching from the topic he had originally been planning on discussing. The kid looked up, surprised. Clearly that hadn’t been what they were expecting him to say. Interesting.

“be honest with me here, kid. have we had this conversation before?” He stared at the counter darkly, trying to keep his gaze off of the kid.

The human looked over at him, then glanced away. “Yes,” they said quietly. Their face was as hard to read as ever, but Sans thought he detected a hint of guilt.

“so you’re the one messing around with time, huh?”

The kid nodded.

Sans sighed. He was a little disappointed; some part of him wanted to believe that the kid might not be everything they seemed to be. That maybe some good food, good friends, and bad laughs might be enough for them. Clearly that hope was in vain. “look, i won’t judge. but from what i can tell, the last timeline was a little… off. mind telling me what happened?”

The kid didn’t answer for a while, staring at their lap intently. Just as Sans was about to give up and walk away, they said, “I made a mistake.”

That was vague. “how big a mistake?” Sans remembered his nightmare. A slash across his chest. Bone marrow dripping from his ribs and out of his mouth. The feeling of his phalanges slowly disintegrating into dust, clutching a piece of fabric in his coat pocket.

The human stood up. “I can’t talk about it right now. I will tell you. Just not yet. There are some things I have to do first.” Their expression left no room for argument.

“alright, kid,” Sans said after a moment, satisfied for now. They didn’t seem homicidal, and whatever had happened in the previous timeline, it looked like they felt sorry for it. That was a good sign. “i’ll see you around.”

The kid said something as Sans stood up. “It’s not an echo flower,” they told him. Sans turned back to them, curious. “It’s a monster that looks like a flower. And he’s dangerous. Don’t let him near Papyrus, if you see him. He knows exactly how to manipulate your brother, but he’s afraid of you. If he knows you’re onto him, he might back off.”

“i don’t remember meeting a talking-flower monster. why’s he afraid of me?” Sans’ expression darkened as he realized the implications of the kid’s knowledge. “what did he do to papyrus? what’s he GOING to do to papyrus?”

“I don’t know if he _will_ do anything,” the human said. “I have no idea what he’s going to do this time. But if he does do anything, it won’t be good. Just be careful.”

Sans took a deep breath. “Alright,” he said as he turned back towards the door. “i’m assuming you won’t get into too much trouble while i’m gone, yeah?” The kid nodded. “good. be seeing you.” Sans left for the Hotland Lab. He had apparently been off in his assumption that someone had been planning a practical joke on his brother; Sans normally let most things slide, but he wasn’t going to let someone go around and “manipulate” Papyrus. Hopefully, Alphys’ cameras would be able to find what he was looking for.

* * *

 

“hey, al,” Sans said as he teleported into the lab. Alphys screamed and fell out of her chair, scattering popcorn all over the floor. The human walked across a large screen in front of her, traversing Waterfall with their customary blank expression. It was a little unnerving when magnified several times by the size of the display.

“Stars, Sans,” she said as she picked herself up. It was hard to actually annoy Alphys, but when one did, her nervous stutter disappeared entirely. “How many times have I asked you NOT to do that?”

“eh. once or twice, maybe,” Sans teased, leaning up against a nearby wall. The dog food Alphys had asked him to deliver a week ago was half full; Sans was curious about who was eating it, but he knew better than to ask. “so, those cameras of yours. they can see anywhere in the underground, right?”  
Alphys started picking popcorn off of the floor after adjusting her glasses. “Um, yes? W-Well, everywhere except the Ruins.”

“good. so, theoretically, they could be used to find someone other than the human?” He glanced toward the screen. The human had stopped to buy some Nice Cream.

“Theoretically, y-yes. Why are you a-asking me this?” Alphys finished putting the popcorn back in the bowl and moved to dump it in the trash can.

“there’s someone i want to look for.” Sans fidgeted with his fingers inside his coat pockets. He was hoping Alphys wouldn’t ask too many questions.

“Sans, these are s-security cameras. I don’t use them for spying.” She crossed her arms.

“so you’re telling me you don’t use them to watch undyne?” Sans’ smile widened as Alphys started sputtering.

Her scales began to turn bright red. “W-What?! N-No, of c-course I d-don’t, I mean who would just _watch_ someone with a set of cameras, I’m not a stalker, I mean sure she’s strong and brave and amazing and… b-but that doesn’t mean anything!”

Sans just stared at her, grin still plastered across his face. “something about that explanation seems a little _fishy_ , al.”

Alphys groaned at the pun and tried to regain her composure. “F-Fine. Who are you looking for?”

Sans moved over to the large screen. The kid was searching through some sort of tall grass. “put the cameras on papyrus.”

Alphys moved over to the controls and began tapping on the keyboard. “Sans, I know you’re protective of him, but isn’t that a little excessive?”

“it’s not him i’m worried about. looks like papyrus has his own stalker.”

“Papyrus…? But he… nevermind.”

The camera cut to the other skeleton. He was standing outside in Snowdin. His phone rang; he answered it enthusiastically, only to let his smile drop when he heard whoever was on the other side of the line. He hung up, took a deep breath, and started walking towards Waterfall.

“pause it,” Sans said. The image froze.

Peering around the corner of the house was a small yellow flower. It was difficult to see, but it was definitely there. Sans could make out the vague impression of a face, but he couldn’t tell much from this distance.

“W-Who is that?” Alphys asked, looking at the same spot on the screen. She sounded particularly nervous.

Sans was hit with a tidal wave of déjà vu. He suddenly felt very angry, though not for any particular reason. “i don’t know,” he answered, “but i’m going to find out.”


	4. The Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Undyne chases the human across Waterfall, and Sans asks them a question they weren't expecting.

Chasing the human all over Waterfall was getting very old, very quickly. By all rights, Undyne should have speared the little tyke a dozen times already. She definitely would have caught them by now if it hadn’t been for that damn scientifically-protected seagrass. She really hated the rules that came with being a Royal Guard sometimes.

On top of running after that slippery scamp, Papyrus had also become a liability. Undyne knew as soon as he started his daily report that he hadn’t just “failed” to capture the human. Papyrus wore his heart on his sleeve, so to speak, and a good liar he was not. It was one of the reasons that had endeared the excitable skeleton to the guard captain, and also one of the reasons she could never let him into the Royal Guard.

He had been right about the human wearing a dusty tutu, though. Undyne didn’t know why he had told her that. The human approached the woodwork over the dump in their ballet gear, now complete with a set of ballet shoes. Undyne summoned spears from the ground around them, hoping to spook them. They stood deathly still the entire time.

Frustrated that her intimidation tactics weren’t working, Undyne stepped out of the shadows. The human sprinted off immediately, and the Royal Guard captain gave chase. The little punk dodged all of her attacks with an eerie sense of calm, walking around the spears when there was an opening and pausing patiently whenever necessary.

Eventually, the human ran out of boardwalk. Unfortunately, Undyne didn’t realize this as she caught up with them. They had turned back towards her; Undyne thought they were going to try to slip past her and double back, which was NOT something she was going to allow. She threw a line of spears at the wood to scare them into going the other way. The old boards splintered, and the dead-end walkway fell into the abyss below.

Damnit.

Undyne began walking back to solid ground and pulled out her phone.

“O-oh, h-hi, U-Undyne!” Alphys answered, stuttering uncontrollably.

“Hey, Alphys. Um, how’s the weather in Hotland?” Undyne asked, a light blush starting to creep onto her face. Weather? There was no weather in the Underground. What was she thinking? Stupid, stupid, stupid…

“O-oh, it’s, um, h-hot?”

“Right, ‘cause it’s Hotland! I forgot,” Undyne laughed nervously. “Uh, anyway, do you have the human on your camera thingies?”

“The… o-oh! Right! Um, give me j-just one s-second…” Undyne heard the tapping of a keyboard through the phone. “Okay, so, they’re, um, i-in the d-dump right now.”

“Okay, good. Thanks, Alphy. Bye.”

“B-Bye, Undyne!”

Undyne put her phone away and jogged the long way towards the dump. She reached the room she was looking for; the human would have to pass through here. She suddenly had an idea and whacked the large light crystal on the ceiling with a spear. It flickered out, and the room grew dark. It would turn back on later. Probably.

Undyne then went to the far edge of the room, where an echo flower sat. “Behind you,” she whispered into it. She kept herself from laughing.  _ This _ would give that little punk a scare.

* * *

Sans had missed meeting the kid at his telescope, and he had evidently also missed a concert from Shyren, but he was fairly confidant that the human could survive Waterfall without him checking up on them. He was more concerned with Papyrus’ mysterious “friend”.

Alphys had moved her cameras back to the human, so for now Sans was on his own. Clearly the little weed was good at hiding; Sans thought he knew just about every nook and cranny of the Underground, and he knew most of the people who lived in it (save for the Ruins monsters). Still, the only recollection he had of the flower monster was his sense of déjà vu; he had a feeling that he and the weed had not gotten along well at all.

He also had a feeling that Alphys knew far more than she was letting on. He had promised to keep her lab work private, though, so he wasn’t going to pry. He hoped that she would tell him anything important, but then again, they hadn’t talked much for a very long time. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Alphys; in fact, she was pretty fun to hang around with. There was also the plus of her being one of the few people he knew relatively well that was shorter than him. He just prefered to stay as far from her laboratory as possible, was all.

Sans had been covertly searching for his quarry all around Papyrus’ location, but the flower was nowhere to be found. Maybe it had caught sight of him and fled, like the kid said it would. It was about time he checked in on the little human anyway.

Sans started looking through Waterfall. They had gotten pretty far, it seemed. Sans noticed spear marks in several places; Undyne wasn’t playing around. He hoped they knew what they were doing.

Sans teleported to his next location, only to be greeted by a ferocious warcry as Undyne plummeted from the sky towards the human. They were dressed in ballet gear, holding a bent-in-half spear. They glanced back at him, surprised that he was here. Undyne took advantage of their distraction, and a spear gouged a deep gash in their side. The kid started knocking the rest of the spears away, feet stuck in place by Undyne’s green magic. It was the human’s turn now.

They turned back to Sans and mouthed “station” before selecting SPARE. Sans teleported away.

* * *

The little human punk was running.  _ Again _ . Undyne was completely fed up with them at this point. The only reaction she’d been able to get out of them was when she’d managed to hit them with her spear, but even that had been less fear and more confusion. She had to give them credit; they were pretty tough for being so puny.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to skewer them, though. Her attacks became more wild as they pulled further and further ahead of her. They were running towards Hotland; they reached the bridge over the lava and ran across it, not missing a beat, right past Sans.

Sans. Sans was  _ sleeping _ . 

Sleeping at his station as the human ran right past him. Undyne had been a hundred shades of furious today, but this was the last straw.

“SANS!” She shouted as she marched towards him. “GET UP, YOU LAZY SACK OF BONES! A HUMAN JUST RAN RIGHT PAST YOUR STATION…” Undyne realized the human was getting away as she shouted at the short skeleton. “NGAAAAAAH!”

Undyne’s vision blurred. This metal armor was hot. Very hot, and getting very heavy. Her skin felt dry. Before she knew it, Undyne found herself collapsed on the bridge, barely able to move.

Her gill slits were dry, and she felt herself choking. A fish monster did  _ not _ allow her gills to dry out. She could breathe on land, yes, but the air still passed through her gills. Her lungs were for yelling, not breathing. Sans had better come and help her, or she was going to shrivel up and die.

The worst part was that she had let the human escape, and they were headed directly for Alphys’ lab. What if they hurt her? Undyne knew their little goody-two-shoes act was fake. They’d tried to convince her by rescuing that kid on the bridge back in Waterfall, but that didn’t prove anything. What kind of soulless beast wouldn’t help a kid dangling over an abyss? Not even a human could be that bad.

Undyne felt cool water splash over her head, and more importantly, onto her gills. She gasped, putting air back into her body. That good-for-nothing lazybones finally did something useful. She stood up to find the human standing in front of her, holding an empty glass of water.

Undyne froze, speechless. She looked around; Sans was nowhere to be found. The human had rescued her. Confused, angry, and exhausted, Undyne simply walked back home in defeat. She wasn’t going to be able to kill them now.

* * *

Sans met the human down by the Riverperson’s Hotland stop. They were pulling a crab apple out of their inventory. He looked at their side to find it bleeding profusely, staining their shirt dark red.

“sorry about that, kiddo,” he said awkwardly. He might have mixed feelings about them, but he wasn’t a sadist. He didn’t particularly enjoy seeing them bleed out.

“I’ve had a lot worse,” they said bluntly. The wound sealed up slowly as their body processed the magic food.

“oh,” Sans said dumbly; he didn’t like how casually they had made that remark. He decided to change the topic. “so, feeling chatty yet?”

“No,” they answered. “Alphys and Undyne have to go on a date first. Then I’ll tell you.”

“that’s, uh, oddly specific,” Sans said. That meant the human had already met Alphys in a previous timeline. “guess you’ve just got a feeling it’s gonna happen at some point, huh?” The human shrugged in reply. “not that it isn’t a good idea. everyone knows they’re made for each other,” Sans chuckled. Anyone that spent any amount of time with the both of them that is, which wasn’t all that many because of Alphys’ reclusive streak. Papyrus certainly knew, though, and had tried to play matchmaker several times. It usually ended in an impromptu wrestling match with Undyne.

“well, if you don’t want to talk about timelines, can we talk about flowers?” Sans was going to get  _ something _ out of this conversation.

The human bent over to tie their shoes. “What do you want to know?”

“where i can find this guy, for starters. you were right, he was hanging around papyrus earlier. but now i can’t find him anywhere.”

“He usually follows me around,” they said, “but I haven’t seen him at all this time. I don’t know what to tell you. He gets around pretty quickly, and it’s hard to pin him down. A little like you, actually.”

“i have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sans said playfully. “anything else you know about him? a name, maybe?”

“His name is Flowey.”

“flowey?” Sans asked. “flowey... the flower?” The human nodded, and Sans started laughing. “oh stars, that’s perfect,” he said between laughs. The human walked towards the boat. They really didn’t find that funny?

“hey, kid,” Sans called after them. They looked back at him. “while we’re talking about names… do you have something else for me to call you besides ‘kid’?”

They tilted their head to the side. Apparently they hadn’t been asked that question much. Sans supposed everyone was more concerned with the fact that they were a human. He winced a little, realizing he probably should have asked that earlier. It probably didn’t feel all that great to be referred to as ‘the human’ all the time. “My name is Frisk,” the human said, stepping onto the boat.

“Waterfall, please,” they told the Riverperson. The boat began to move.

“alright, frisk,” Sans said. “i’ll see you later.”


	5. Performances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne watch Frisk on Mettaton's show. Sans has a chat with a certain talking flower.

Sans had to admit that this was much better than his previous scrambling. By convincing Papyrus and Undyne to watch Mettaton’s show in the skeleton brothers’ house, he had found a way to simultaneously keep an eye on Papyrus _and_ Frisk, all without moving from the couch. If that wasn’t some hardcore laziness, he didn’t know what was.

“OH! LOOK, LOOK!” Papyrus shouted excitedly, pointing to Frisk as they walked across the television screen. “THE DARK ROOM WAS ACTUALLY CONCEALING A WELL-MADE NEWS STATION SET! HOW ASTOUNDING! I NEVER SAW IT COMING!”

“Really, Papyrus?” Undyne said, unimpressed. “There was a cooking show the last time they went into a dark room.”

“YES, A COOKING SHOW, NOT A NEWS PROGRAM. THE TWO ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, UNDYNE.” Papyrus gestured with his hands as he spoke.

“That’s not what I - ugh, nevermind. Just shut up and watch the show.” Undyne folded her arms and turned back to the television. The human stopped in front of a glass of water.

“ATTENTION, VIEWERS!” Mettaton called from the screen. “OUR CORRESPONDENT HAS FOUND… A GLASS OF WATER!”

“OH, HOW EXCITING!” Papyrus clapped.

“...Papyrus. It’s a _glass_ of _water._ The little punk should have opened the gift box!” Undyne was beginning to get frustrated. Sans scooted towards the other end of the couch.

“I’M TRYING TO BE SUPPORTIVE,” Papyrus said in what he probably thought was a whisper. “THIS IS THEIR VERY FIRST NEWS REPORT!”

“...You know they can’t hear you from here, right?” Undyne stared at him blankly with her one eye.

Papyrus froze for a moment. “I’M SURE THEY CAN STILL FEEL US CHEERING THEM ON!” he decided, resuming his clapping.

“Hmm,” Undyne thought to herself for a moment. “You know what? I bet they can! ALRIGHT! LET’S GO, HUMAN!” She raised her fists into the air.

The only problem with Sans’ plan was that his skull would probably be ringing for a week between Papyrus’ lack of an indoor voice and Undyne’s shouting. Nothing was perfect. The weed still hadn’t shown up; Sans didn't know whether to be concerned or relieved.

Mettaton continued his report. “LIKE ALL GLASSES OF WATER, IT’S COMPRISED OF WATER, GLASS, NITROGLYCERIN…”

Sans returned his attention to the screen at the mention of nitroglycerin. “WAIT A SECOND,” Mettaton said. “THAT’S NOT A GLASS OF WATER! THAT’S… A BOMB!” Now Sans was concerned. Mettaton was entirely crazy enough to use real bombs on a set.

“OH NO! THERE’S NO WAY WE WILL BE ABLE TO REACH THEM IN TIME! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?” Papyrus was now fully invested in the show.

Just then, Alphys’ voice appeared on Frisk’s phone. The audience could hear her clearly, suggesting Mettaton had access to the phone line. She told them about a ‘bomb-defusing program’ she’d installed on their cell, and Frisk got to work on the explosives. Sans was sure that Alphys was involved in this now; there was no way she would put a bomb-defusing app on the phone arbitrarily.

“Alright, Alphy!” Undyne shouted. “This is AWESOME! GO FASTER, YOU’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!”

“you know they can’t hear you from here, right?” Sans mimicked Undyne’s previous statement as she shouted instructions at the screen. She turned to glare at him.

“Sans, I _will_ throw you at this TV,” she threatened.

“UNDYNE, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM BREAKING THE TELEVISION OR MY BROTHER,” Papyrus mediated from his position between them.

Undyne continued her glare, but turned back towards the television. The human missed their first attempt at defusing the gift box. Papyrus stuck the tips of his phalanges inside his mouth nervously, clattering his teeth against them.

“Ugh, this is stressing me out,” Undyne said.

“yeah, this is one test the kid definitely doesn’t want to _bomb_ ,” Sans grinned.

Sans felt himself being dragged over Papyrus’ lap by one of Undyne’s hands, and then raised over her head. He’d gone too far. He immediately began regretting his life decisions.

“UNDYNE!” Papyrus said, panicking a little, “IF YOU BREAK THE TV, WE WON’T BE ABLE TO WATCH THE HUMAN!” He was trying to reason with her, but it was clear that he was more worried about his brother than the television. _I_ ’ _ve got the coolest brother ever,_ Sans thought as he prepared for his final moments.

Surprisingly, Undyne paused, grumbling. Sans thought for a brief moment that he might be spared. Then, Undyne suplexed him off of the back of the couch, slamming his skull into the floor. He crumpled into an upside-down heap between the wall and the sofa; now his skull was _definitely_ ringing. Papyrus turned around, concerned.

“BROTHER, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” he asked, trying to find Sans’s face beneath the pile of hoodie and tangled-up bones.

“heh, you know me, paps. it takes a lot to _rattle_ me,” Sans mustered a strained chuckle. It was hard to breathe like this. He couldn’t suffocate exactly, but he did need air to talk, and he had precious little left after being tossed like a rag doll.

Papyrus’ eyes narrowed disapprovingly. “THEN CLEARLY YOU DON’T NEED MY ASSISTANCE GETTING OUT OF YOUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT.” He turned back to the television.

“c’mon, bro, don’t be like that,” Sans whined. He struggled to right himself for a few seconds before giving up. This was actually kind of comfy, in a weird way. He glanced toward the window, which he could see from his current position.

There, staring intently at Papyrus from around the corner, was a small yellow flower. He seemed to be watching the screen, as well. Sans teleported outside, using his blue magic to right himself in the air as he landed soundlessly.

“hey there, buddy,” he said, letting a significant amount of menace seep into his voice. “enjoying the show?”

Flowey turned around, surprised, before trying to sink back into the earth. Sans seized him with blue magic, pulling him upwards and preventing him from escaping.

“Ugh,” Flowey groaned, frustrated. “What do _you_ want, smiley trashbag?”

“just wanted to give you some friendly advice, _flowey_ ,” Sans said with a wink.

The flower’s face blanched at the mention of his name. “You’re not supposed to--”

“supposed to what? remember?” Sans tugged a little harder with his blue magic as he walked closer. He let his eyelights go out. “funny how that works, huh?”

“What do you want, comedian?” Flowey asked defensively. He started sweating, which was a curious thing to see on a flower.

“like i said, advice: **stay away from my brother**.” Sans’ voice dropped to a growl.

Flowey rolled his eyes. “Do you really think I would bother messing with Papyrus right now? If you _do_ remember, then we both know we’ve got bigger problems to deal with.”

Sans’ eyelights reappeared in his confusion. “what are you talking about?”

Flowey glared at him. “Don’t play coy, trashbag. The moment Chara decides to go genocidal again, we’re all done for. And I don’t particularly feel like dying today.”

Sans paused for a moment. Wasn’t Chara Asgore’s kid? A dozen new questions popped up inside his skull. “i’m working on that,” he said, deciding to continue his bluff. If him ‘remembering’ what had happened before got Flowey to stay away from Papyrus, then he wasn’t going to correct the little weed’s assumptions.

“Pfft. Yeah, right,” Flowey laughed. “You’re pathetic, Sans. Do you really think playing nice with them for the billionth time is going to do _anything_? Do you really think they care at all about any of you after what they did?” His face morphed as he spoke, his smile growing fangs and his eyes turning red. Sans didn’t like it at all.

“i never said that was the plan,” the skeleton said. He and the kid really needed to have another talk. He’d already had enough of his conversation with the flower.

“Oh really? Mind filling me in, then?”

“nah. for some reason, i don’t really trust you.”

“You really are an idiot, comedian,” Flowey said. “You know very well that my first priority is self preservation. If you have a way to stop that demon, then tell me and I’ll help.”

“i think i’ll take my chances,” Sans said as he dropped his magic. His eyelights disappeared once more. “as for you, if i see you anywhere near papyrus… **you’re gonna have a bad time**.”

Flowey glared at him and popped back into the ground. Sans looked at the television through the window; it looked like Frisk would be reaching Mettaton’s resort soon. The kid had some serious explaining to do.


	6. A Raincheck on Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans learns some things about Frisk that he wasn't expecting. It turns out he can can be pretty motivated when he has a reason to believe his actions will actually do something.

Sans leaned up against one of the outer walls of MTT Resort and took a swig from his ketchup bottle absentmindedly; he needed the sugar to stay awake. At this point, he couldn’t decide if he was confused, crazy, pissed off at the kid, the weed, himself, or just plain sleep-deprived. Usually he would just crawl into his haphazardly-made bed or doze off at his sentry station and postpone dealing with his problems until he inevitably forgot all of them and started over again, but his dreams had been even darker and more insistent than usual. Almost every time he closed his eyes, he was assaulted by images of some sort. A flash of steel; a gold locket; a view of the judgement hall from the floor; looking down at his own shirt to find it stained red; a dusty scarf; a demonic smile.

Sans didn’t think it was normal, but then again, he wouldn’t really remember if it had happened before. He should have given up on dealing with this kid a long time ago; he had no idea why he had actually tried in the first place. It was exhausting, and he knew exactly what it was going to accomplish: absolutely nothing. Sans knew enough about acting cheerful to know a fake smile when he saw one, and he had yet to see a single genuine one from Frisk. _Papyrus_ didn’t even make them actually happy, and if he couldn’t, then no one could. One thing was clear: Frisk didn’t really care about any of them. Sans was sure he, his brother, and the rest of the Underground were all just pawns in whatever sick game they were playing.

And yet, for some reason, something kept driving him forward inch by inch. It was something urgent and persistent; it was some tiny little voice in the back of his skull that insisted that this particular reset was different, that he could actually _do_ something. And for once, the thick, viscous apathy that had gradually swallowed his soul wasn’t quite drowning it.

That didn’t mean Sans didn’t want to dissolve into the pavement as Frisk approached. He was _not_ looking forward to this conversation. Frisk waved as they walked toward him; apparently, they had expected him to be there. Lovely.

“sup, kiddo?” Sans put on his best fake smile for them. If he was going to do this, he might as well do it right. “you feel like grabbing some dinner with me?”

Frisk smiled and nodded. Their eyes betrayed how hollow the gesture was.

“good, ‘cause you’ve got some explaining to do,” Sans said. He could barely keep a growl from working its way into his voice. “i know you said i had to wait, but i’m gonna need some answers, frisk. or is that even your name?” They tilted their head to the side, confused. “a little bird told me your name might be chara.”

Their eyes darkened at the mention of the name. They looked around nervously. “...Fine,” they said at last. Sans could barely hear them. “But if you want to talk about _that_ , we need to go somewhere more private than the resort. I can’t risk anyone overhearing.”

Sans raised a brow-bone, then shrugged. “alright. whatever you say.”

“And my name is _not_ Chara,” they said. There was an edge to their voice.

“sure thing, kid,” he complied. Sans decided it would probably be best not to offend the person that held the entire Underground on their puppet-strings.

He motioned for them to follow as he walked into the dead-end alleyway to the left of the resort, and opened a portal in the wall. Normally he just blinked to and from his destination, but it was easier to create a doorway when other people were involved; not that he got other people involved often. It was too much work.

Sans flipped on the lightswitch to his dusty laboratory; the lights flickered on slowly, dull from lack of use. “guess we’ll have to take a raincheck on dinner, huh?”

Frisk was looking around the lab, a curious look on their face. This was a new experience for them, it seemed. _Tibia_ honest, Sans was a little surprised. At this point, he figured the kid knew the Underground inside and out; maybe Sans had a few tricks up his sleeve after all.

“sorry ‘bout the mess,” he said as they brushed a layer of dust off of one of the countertops. He wasn’t really the kind of person a dirty workplace would bother, but evidently Frisk was. They rubbed their hand on the side of their pants to clean the dust off of it. They didn’t look particularly happy, but then again, they never really did.

Frisk turned to him. The dim lighting cast eerie shadows on their face; Sans hadn’t really thought about it until now, but this kid was capable of a lot of terrible things. They could kill him, if they wanted to, and there wasn’t really anything he could do about it. They stared at him, waiting patiently for him to say something.

Sans felt a few drops of sweat begin to bead on his skull. _Get it together,_ he thought. “so, uh… do you wanna start from the top?”

“I don’t have time to give you the whole story. We’ll be down here forever. If you have something specific you want to ask me, then I’ll try to be as honest as I can.”

Sans sighed internally. _You’re not making this easy, kid._ “fine. i’ll keep things brief, then. did you kill me?”

Frisk was taken aback by the bluntness of the question, but they regained their composure quickly. “By account of a technicality, no. But I might as well have.” They drew their hands up to their shoulders, hugging themself in what appeared to be embarrassment.

Sans began to wonder if the human was capable of giving him a straight answer. “well, if you didn’t kill me, then who did?”

“Chara,” they replied, acting as though that explained everything.

“alright, then who the hell is chara? i’m hearing an awful lot about them and none of it makes sense. y’know, considering the last i heard they were the king and queen’s dead kid.” Sans’ patience was starting to wear thin, and that was something that almost never happened. He didn’t have the energy to be impatient.

“Chara’s… complicated.”

“i’m gonna need a little better than that, bud.”

Frisk sighed and rubbed their hand against their temple, looking for a way to explain. “The very first time I fell into the underground was when my… ability activated. I somehow… willed myself awake after the fall. That’s my ‘reset point.’ I go back there whenever I reset. Somehow, creating that reset point woke Chara up.”

“last time i checked, you don’t just ‘wake up’ a dead kid, kid.”

“It was just their consciousness. They were buried in a flower bed in the Ruins, and when I woke up, I could hear their voice in my head.” Sans gave them a skeptical look. “I’m not crazy,” they said, glaring half-heartedly. “They knew things I couldn’t possibly have. They told me people’s names before I met them; they could read the ancient writing in Waterfall, even though it wasn’t a language I had ever seen. I can’t explain why or how it happened. It just did.”

“so, what? they just took control of your body and stabbed me?” Sans asked incredulously.

“Yes. That’s exactly what happened.”

Sans didn’t know what to make of this. They didn’t seem like they were lying, but he didn’t really trust his ability to read them accurately. He wouldn’t even think of believing them if his week hadn’t already been as bizarre as it had been. He wasn’t sure what else to ask.

“alright. i got one more question for you, frisk,” he said at long last. “...did you ever actually care about any of us? undyne? papyrus?” It was a stupid question to ask, he knew, but his curiosity got the better of him. He felt the apathy crawling up his spine, and decided to get one last answer before it consumed him.

“More than anything.” Frisk gave the tips of their shoes a thousand-yard stare.

The answer pulled Sans back out from the confines of his own mind. “...then why don’t you now?” He wasn’t going to let the kid dispute the fact that they didn’t. He _knew_ they didn’t.

It seemed like an eternity before they answered. “Fight me.”

“excuse me?”

“Enter a Fight with me.”

“how about we… don’t do that.”

Frisk rolled their eyes underneath their heavy eyelids. “You don’t _actually_ have to fight me,” they said. “If you want your answer, then just do it.”

Sans sighed as he initiated the battle. The world flickered out around them, and the human turned greyscale. Nothing else happened; Frisk reached over and selected SPARE. Sans did the same, absently, and the battle ended.

“you don’t have a soul,” Sans said, finally voicing the observation he had been too dumbfounded say aloud earlier. A human’s soul always manifested in front of them during a battle. There had been nothing in front of Frisk.

“Yes,” they said. “So no matter how much, how _desperately_ I want to care about all of you… I can’t.”

Sans’ frustration quickly turned to some mixture of confusion and pity. That sounded like a fate worse than death. What would Sans do if he suddenly stopped being able to care about Papyrus? He’d probably just… sink into the ground. Never move again. Fall down. And there would be nothing anyone could do about it.

“The important thing to remember from this conversation, Sans, is this: I can’t reset anymore,” they said. Sans looked at them, trying to process all of this new information. “And if I don’t have control of the timeline anymore, that means _Flowey_ does. He just hasn’t figured that out yet. The moment he does, we’re all doomed. That means he _doesn’t_ find out. Understand?” They took a step closer to him, looking into his eye sockets to make sure he was listening.

Sans just nodded and opened up a portal back to the resort. Frisk walked through, and it closed behind them.

It seemed like there was a lot more going on than Sans had originally thought. He was in _way_ over his head. The most important thing Sans had gleaned from the conversation, however, wasn’t that Flowey couldn’t learn about Frisk’s predicament; he wasn’t planning on sharing anything with the little weed anyway. No, the most important thing that he had picked up was that Frisk seemed to have some sort of plan. It wasn’t guaranteed, but it could mean that Sans could escape the resets, the nightmares, the déjà vu that drowned out his thoughts, his emotions, his very will to live. For once, there was actually a chance for things to _change_.

The little voice in his head grew a little louder, and a little of the apathy clinging to his bones melted away. Sans blinked into his room and started throwing piles of laundry into a hamper. Papyrus might appreciate him wearing clean clothes to dinner tonight. For once, he felt up to trying his brother’s cooking.


	7. The Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alphys and the human go on a date.

Alphys regretted agreeing to going on a date with the human as soon as the words left her mouth. What was she thinking? She didn’t actually like the human, and there was no way they would like her after going on a date with her. Or worse, they  _ would _ end up liking her for some bizarre reason, and she’d be stuck dating them. How old were they, anyway? She had no idea how to tell.

And now, she’d taken them to the garbage dump of all places. The only person that would actually want to go on a date at the dump would be Undyne, and Undyne would never go on a date with Alphys. Never in a million years. Alphys had even bumbled and tried to give the human gifts that were obviously for a certain fish-woman, and painfully so at that. What on  _ earth  _ was she doing here?

Alphys glanced away in her own embarrassment, only to see a certain captain of the Royal Guard approaching from the distance. Her heart skipped a beat.

Then it started pounding out of her chest in sheer panic.

Alphys ducked behind a nearby trashcan as Undyne approached the human. 

“Hey! There you are!” Undyne called out as she reached them, skidding to a stop amongst the trash. “I, uh, realized, if you deliver that thing… it might be a bad idea. So I’m gonna do it! Give it to me!” The human gave her a shrug and turned out their pockets. They were empty. What ‘thing’ was Undyne talking about? “Huh?! You don’t have it?!”

Frisk shrugged again, this time wearing a small grin Alphys would have dubbed ‘mischievous’. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach. She nearly jumped out of her scales as Undyne screamed in frustration. “Have you at least seen her?!” Undyne asked. One could practically see steam coming out of her ears. Her face was red, too.

The human nodded, and Undyne dashed off to find her. Alphys nearly fainted with relief as she stepped out from behind the trashcan. “W… Well, I guess it’s obvious, huh?” she sighed, avoiding eye contact with the human. “I… uh… I really like her.”

The human nodded in understanding. Clearly they had known this for a while, which was extremely embarrassing because if they could tell, surely other people could, too. Although, the human did have an uncanny ability to read people, it seemed. They treated everyone sort of like an old friend. Their facial expressions didn’t change much, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything, right?

Alphys was incredibly grateful that they were so forgiving. Not only had she put them through dangerous puzzles, lied to them, subsequently failed at navigating them through said dangerous puzzles, but she also decided it would be a good idea to go on a pity date with them. Pity dates were  _ never _ a good idea. Still, the human forgave her almost instantly, and they didn’t even judge her when she revealed just how much she had been lying to Undyne. It was… a weight off of her shoulders to know that  _ someone _ might still care about her, even after learning just how terrible a person she was.

Alphys almost declined when the human suggested that they roleplay Alphys telling Undyne the truth. But, they had been so helpful so far with overcoming her personal issues that she thought it would be silly to refuse their aid. Maybe it would actually be helpful in the long run. Alphys cleared her throat and got into character; well, as much as she could, considering she was playing herself.

“H-Hi Undyne… h-how are you doing today?”

“You’re cute,” the human said. Their voice cracked a little as they tried to mimic Undyne’s gruffer tone. The human was good at this, Alphys realized. That’s exactly what Undyne would say!

“Th… thanks! You say that to me a lot, and I never know what to say!” she replied. “But I know, you just, mean it platonically, because we’re just friends!” Alright, that was a little awkward. She took a deep breath. “Uhhh, so I’d like to, um, talk to you about something.”

“What is it, Alphys?” The human leaned back against one of the garbage piles casually.

“Umm, you see… I… I…” Where was Alphys supposed to start? She’d fed Undyne so many lies, there didn’t seem to be a start or an end to them.  “I… I h-haven’t been exactly truthful w-w-with you…” Her nervous stutter asserted itself in full force. Undyne wasn’t even  _ here _ and she was getting major butterflies in her stomach. “Y… you see, I… I…”

“Oh, forget it!” She finally said. This was roleplay, not real life, and she would rather be doing something enjoyable. Besides, she could use some inspiration for the confession scene of the fic she was writing. Which totally did  _ not _ involve Undyne in any way at all. “Undyne! I… I want to tell you how I feel!”

Alphys was surprised by how easily her thoughts translated into words. Sure, her stuttery tongue made a mess of them, but it felt natural to tell Undyne (well, the human playing as Undyne) just how much she adored her. She was so brave, and strong, and nice, and she always listened to Alphys when she talked about nerdy stuff, and…

And she was standing  _ right there _ .

“WHAT did you just say?” Undyne’s face was almost pale with shock. Her expression was blank. What were the last words out of Alphys’ mouth? She’d gotten so caught up in her own confession that she couldn’t even remember what she’d said. Dizzying panic took control of her tongue.

“Undyne! I… was… just…”

“Hey, woah, wait a second! Your outfit’s really cute! What’s the occasion?” Undyne took a moment to look at Alphys, and then back to the human. “Wait a second. Are you two… on a date?” Her pupils shrank.

Alphys blanked out as the panic took full control of everything. She didn’t even hear the excuses she came up with as they left her mouth. It lasted for a few seconds before she woke up from the strange state; Undyne looked as confused as Alphys did. Time froze for a brief moment as Alphys tried to decide what to do. This situation was screwed up enough as it was. She didn’t need more lies and excuses to add to the pile. It was time.

“Undyne… I… I’ve been lying to you!” The words stung Alphys’ lips. Painful words that desperately needed to be said.

“What? About what?”

“About, well… everything!”

Confessions spilled out faster than Alphys’ mind could recognise them. She inched towards Undyne as she rambled, looking down at the ground. It would all end here.

She had practically gone numb by the time Undyne bent down to hug her; it took Alphys a few seconds to register the touch. She kept confessing. “Undyne, I… I really think you’re neat, okay?” She’d finally said the words she wanted to say for ages.

“Alphys,” Undyne said with a smile. “Shhh. Shhhh.” Alphys finally stopped talking. The hug was nice.

Alphys felt herself hurtling through the air and into the very trashcan she had hid behind earlier. Most people would have taken it as a very blatant rejection, but this happened to all of Undyne’s friends on a somewhat regular basis. It didn’t mean much.

“Alphys!” Undyne said, energy returning to her voice. “I… think you’re neat, too, I guess. But, you’ve gotta realize… most of what you said doesn’t really matter to me.” Alphys listened intently as Undyne debunked every fear running through the lizard monster’s head. Undyne didn’t hate her; Alphys felt like crying with relief.

Then, Undyne mentioned training. Undyne and Alphys  _ training _ . It was like something straight out of one of Alphys’ fanfics… that she totally didn’t write. She was completely lovestruck at this point; she couldn’t stop smiling.

That is, until Papyrus appeared wearing a t-shirt with ‘jogboy’ written on it. Alphys liked Papyrus; she really did. He was silly, and a sweetheart, and such a cinnamon roll. However.

Alphys had never been less happy to see someone in her life at that moment.

Still, if it would make Undyne happy, Alphys would do what she had to. She jogged after Papyrus; today was the start of a new life for her. First, she had to clean out the mistakes of the old one.

* * *

“it’s about time,” Sans chuckled as the human rounded the corner he was hiding behind. “for those two, i mean. i gotta hand it to you, frisk, you’re a pretty good matchmaker.” Frisk gave him a half-hearted smile. Sans didn’t find it as disconcerting now that he realized would probably have been genuine at some point. Maybe he was grasping at straws, but it felt good to have  _ something _ to hold onto after all this time.

“so... i’m in the mood for a story. how ‘bout you?”

Frisk nodded, then held up a finger as they pulled out their phone. It rang as they did so. Sans leaned in to listen, and Frisk didn’t complain. It was Papyrus, giving the human a completely unsuspicious tip about Alphys. They hung up and dialed another number as they started walking.

“where we goin’, buddo?” Sans asked, following lazily.

“Alphys’ lab.” They replied. Papyrus picked up the line again. “HELLO, HUMAN! DID YOU PERCHANCE VISIT DOCTOR ALPHYS? NOT THAT YOU HAVE AN URGENT REASON TO DO SO, OR ANYTHING!”

“I did, actually,” Frisk replied. “I think that Alphys could really use some support from all of her friends right now. Could you get Undyne and come over to the lab? Sans and I will meet you there.”

“O-OH! OKAY! WE WILL BE THERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!” Papyrus sounded slightly nervous, but still excited.

“what’s goin’ on here, kid?” Sans asked. He wasn’t sure he liked Papyrus being roped into… whatever this was.

“I’ll explain once we meet up with Alphys. You all deserve the truth, and I don’t feel like telling this story four different times. Besides, the lab will help explain things.”

Sans frowned a little, but continued walking. It didn’t sound like he had a choice in the matter, anyway. Frisk looked to the Riverperson’s boat, and then back to Sans. “Shortcut or scenic route?” They asked.

Sans sighed and opened a portal.


	8. Responsibility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang enters the True Lab, and Frisk begins to explain everything.

Frisk and Sans arrived at the laboratory; Frisk walked in and leaned against the wall next to Alphys’ “bathroom.” There was a piece of paper on the ground - Sans looked at it curiously.

“Go ahead and read it,” Frisk told him, gesturing with their hand. “I already know what it says.”

Sans would be lying if that didn’t irk him a little, but he flicked the paper into his hand with a bit of magic and read it anyway. It looked like Alphys was in deeper than he thought; whatever secrets she had been keeping, they must have been pretty big. He didn’t like to pry, but it looked like she had given them permission.

“hey, frisk,” Sans asked as he finished reading. “you know that papyrus sounded… off in that last phone call right?”

“Sure.”

“do you, uh... have any idea why?”

“Someone probably gave him some advice.”

Sans realized that they were implicating the weed from their tone of voice. Obviously, someone hadn’t listened to Sans’ warning. “i wonder why _someone_ would tip pap off to… whatever’s going on here.” Sans knew that the kid was being vague on purpose, in case the someone was listening, but he had an issue with not knowing the flower’s game.

Frisk just shrugged, but walked over to the trash bin beside Alphys’ computer disk. They glanced at the door casually, waiting for their other friends to arrive, while covertly pointing at the trash can with their pinky. Then they walked over to the door and looked outside.

Sans peeked into the trash subtly; among many empty ramen containers, there was a crumpled piece of paper. He unfurled it with his blue magic, not removing it from the bin. There was a single sentence written on it, in some rather odd handwriting.

_I KNOW WHAT YOU DID._

Sans’ intuition told him that the flower was also responsible for this. He felt a sinking feeling in his ribs; Flowey apparently had his brother at his beck and call, some sort of blackmail on Alphys, and Sans had no idea who he was. As much as he hated feeling like everything had already happened before, he hated being in the dark even more. It was in his nature to know about everything; he used to be a scientist, after all.

A telltale racket began to build in the distance as Papyrus and Undyne approached. Frisk turned to Sans. “Sans… our previous conversation… please keep that between us, would you?” Sans nodded as the doors slid open.

“Alright, where’s Alphy?” Undyne pushed Frisk aside and stormed into the room. She was in her casual clothes this time; she also brought a large bottle of water with her. Even so, her scales looked dry. Frisk pointed to the letter in Sans’ hand, and strode over to him.

Sans’ arm recoiled as she snatched the letter, afraid the royal guard would take a few of his phalanges with it. She squinted as she brought her face close to the paper, trying to read it; Papyrus peeked over her shoulder. Sans knew from previous experience just how terrible Alphys’ handwriting was. Ironically, Sans actually had excellent handwriting - practically good enough to be a font.

“What’s this supposed to mean?” Undyne scratched her head, puzzled.

“I’ll show you,” Frisk said, waving them over to the bathroom that Sans knew was really an elevator. Curious, the gang all walked in after them. The doors closed, and they began to descend.

“so, uh… once we find alphys… frisk’s got something to tell all of us. right, frisk?” They’d said they’d give Sans the full story, but he wasn’t taking any chances. Undyne and Papyrus wouldn’t let them weasel out of an explanation now.

“Frisk?” Both Papyrus and Undyne asked at once.

“yeah. frisk. it’s the kid’s name,” Sans said. Did none of them ask their name?

“Huh. I guess we never asked,” Undyne said, confirming the thought Sans just had. “That’s weird. What did you want to tell us, Frisk?” Papyrus and Undyne both stared at them expectantly.

“Not yet,” they said. “We need Alphys first.” They braced themselves against the wall. “You might want to hold onto something.”

“why--” Sans’ question was cut off as the elevator’s speed rapidly began increasing.

* * *

Frisk stood up from their seated position in the lightless elevator as the doors slid open. Undyne stood up from her crouch; the skeleton brothers were on the ground, Papyrus’ arms wrapped protectively around Sans.

“you okay, bro?” Sans asked as he sucked air back into his body, reaching a hand up to steady his aching skull. The kid couldn’t have given them a little more warning?

“I’M FINE, BROTHER,” Papyrus said, standing himself and his brother back up. “THAT WAS QUITE A FALL! WHAT HAPPENED?”

“The power cut off,” Frisk said simply, leaving the room. Sans was getting better at reading the cues they were giving him; ‘cut off,’ as in _someone_ had cut off the elevator power. He already had a theory on who.

“Sans,” Frisk called from the corridor. He walked out to meet them, still dizzy from the fall. “Can you try and find Alphys? I’ve never been able to find her until later,” they said, keeping their voice low as Papyrus and Undyne began to follow. “She must be in a part of the lab I can’t access.”

Sans nodded, blinking out of the room. He knew the lab pretty well, and had an idea where she’d be.

Sans’ hunch was correct; she was at one of the back-room computer terminals, trying to reroute the elevator power remotely. The system seemed to have locked her out.

“Oh, come on you piece of--” Alphys screamed as she turned around to see Sans behind her. “Really? Again, Sans?”  
Alphys’ annoyance quickly turned to shock. “Wait… Sans? You… you came down here after me?” She sounded genuinely surprised; Sans winced mentally. In reality, he probably wouldn’t have come after her if Frisk hadn’t brought him. He felt a little guilty.

“sure, al,” he said, putting on a smile. “undyne, pap, and frisk are all here, too. come on, we got some stuff we all need to talk about.”

“F-Frisk? O-Oh! Is that the h-human’s name?”

“...yeah.” Wow. _None_ of them knew Frisk’s name. Poor kid.

Sans and Alphys reappeared in the corridor, where Undyne and Papyrus were reading the lab entries on the wall. Undyne turned around to see Alphys.

“There you are!” She said, rushing over. “Alphys… what is all this?” She waved to the screens.

“I… I-I…”

“The other lab entries will explain, I’m sure,” Frisk said, giving Alphys a reassuring smile. “We can read them while I tell you my story. Multitasking.”

Alphys gave them a grateful glance as Undyne nodded. The group walked forward.

“As Alphys had already shown you,” Frisk began, gesturing to the lab notes, “Humans can possess a power called Determination.” Alphys looked away guiltily while Undyne stared at Frisk with interest. “I have this power. When I first fell into the Underground, it activated - and I learned that I could go back in time.”

Undyne’s eyes lit up. “Whoa, really? That’s awesome!”

“YES, IT IS!” Papyrus chimed in. “THAT IS INCREDIBLE, HU-- I MEAN, FRISK!”

“Yes,” they said, laughing weakly, “but that’s just the beginning of the story. The very first time I came into the Underground… didn’t turn out like this time did. I was terrified; I was surrounded by things I thought only existed in stories. Everyone was trying to kill me, and I didn’t know why.”

Everyone’s smiles dropped. “BUT… THAT’S NOT… I DIDN’T…” Papyrus searched his skull for a response.

“Not everyone,” Frisk conceded. “But most people. So-- after dying seventeen times--”

“Wait, wait, wait. You DIED?” Undyne asked, eye wide. “And you came back? That’s… that’s so COOL!”

“And painful,” Frisk said coldly. Undyne’s wide grin faded. “Have you ever been burned to death, Undyne? Felt all of your flesh disintegrating off your bones? Or, maybe, you’ve been impaled before? A nice spear through your guts, coughing up blood, bleeding out onto the ground?” For once, Undyne was speechless. The implications of what Frisk had said sunk in. It was no wonder getting their side gouged by one of Undyne’s spears hadn’t fazed them earlier. Frisk sighed and continued.

“Anyway. After seventeen deaths, I finally picked up a weapon and defended myself. The very first person I met told me that this world was kill or be killed - and after the way I was treated, I believed him. By the time I left the Underground - and I did leave - I had a lot of dust on my hands.”

“You… you killed someone? Who?!” Undyne demanded. Whatever guilt she was harboring was replaced with fury.

“A lot of people. You, Papyrus, some Royal Guards, a bunch of other monsters that wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“BUT… FRISK, I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS,” Papyrus said. He looked visibly hurt and horrified. Sans felt his own anger boiling up; did they really have to go there? Undyne started stomping forward.

“Let me finish,” Frisk warned. “Then you can decide if you want to spear me or not.” Undyne glared at them, but backed off. Alphys was sweating profusely. “When I got to the end, Sans was at the judgement hall. I thought he was going to try and kill me, like everyone else.”

“Instead, he asked me a question I’ll never forget. He somehow caught on that I was a time traveler. And he asked me… that if I had some sort of special power, wasn’t it my responsibility to do the right thing?” Frisk looked at the ground. “I hadn’t thought about it like that. I just wanted to stay alive. I didn’t think anyone would spare me; not even you, Papyrus. I was convinced that the Underground really was ‘kill or be killed.’”

Papyrus’ face went from hurt to pity. “FRISK… I WOULD NEVER KILL YOU! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU THOUGHT THAT!”

“I know that now,” they smiled. “But I didn’t then. Once I left, Sans gave me a phone call. Things had gotten really bad in the Underground after I left; all because of me. That’s when I decided that I _did_ have a responsibility to do the right thing. So I went back to the very beginning and tried again.”

“The first time, I left the underground with LV 10. The second time, I only had seven. I spared Papyrus - it was easy after I figured out he really didn’t want to hurt me. But Sans told me that I had killed some people on purpose; and when I thought about it, it was true. I got sick of dying, so I stopped looking for ways to spare them. So I tried again, and again. When I got to LV 3, Sans still told me I could do better. When I got to two, he told me no one gets to LV 2 on accident.

“Finally - on try twenty-four - I figured out how to get past Undyne without killing her. She was the hardest one of all - she really did want to kill me.” Undyne sighed, realizing what role she’d played in all this. Now that she knew Frisk, it was… embarrassing. She still wasn’t happy, though. “But, she just wanted what was best for her people. And, the more I got to know them all, I realized… they were all really _good_ people. Down to the last one. So, I found a way where no one had to die, and that’s when I knew that I really did care about all of you. On the twenty-fourth try, I found a way to get us to the surface - all of us. And I was finally happy.”

They all walked in silence for a little while before Sans spoke up. He didn’t bother to hide the anger in his voice. Frisk knew perfectly well what he was feeling. “then why are we still down here, kid?”


	9. Try #73

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk finishes their story.

“if you were finally happy, why are we all still underground?” Sans repeated his question. He should have known they didn’t really care about them. They were all still pawns in Frisk’s game. Sans had gotten his hopes up, when it never,  _ never _ ended in anything but misery for him.

“Something happened,” Frisk said. Sans kept staring, eye sockets empty. “There’s a group of humans on the surface - I think they’re responsible for keeping the barrier sealed. When I broke it, they came in and attacked. You all… you all died.” Sans blinked, eyelights returning. He wasn’t sure if he believed them or not.

“When I broke the barrier, my powers diminished. Apparently, they’re stronger when it only affects the Underground; it’s like my Determination is more concentrated. Normally, I can go back just a little bit in time, and try a battle over again. I call it ‘loading.’ But this time, I could only go back to the very beginning. So that’s what I did.

“I tried everything. I tried telling you all to stay behind while I negotiated with them. I tried bringing other humans to help. I tried fighting them off; but they had their own magic. Nothing I did, nothing  _ we _ did, ever worked. We’d all get to see the sunrise together on the surface, and then I’d have to reset again.”

“WELL… FRISK,” Papyrus said, fiddling with his gloves. “YOU HAVE OBVIOUSLY MADE SOME MISTAKES IN THE PAST.”

“a  _ lot _ of mistakes,” Sans added. He was still in a bad mood.

“YES,” Papyrus glared at his brother. “BUT IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU HAVE TRIED TO MAKE UP FOR THEM. CLEARLY, OUR CURRENT STATE OF UNDERGROUND-NESS IS NOT YOUR FAULT.” He gave another sharp look at Sans to accentuate his point.

Sans sighed. Papyrus was right on that point, at least. He finally felt confident in his ability to tell if the human was lying; and they hadn’t lied yet in their entire story, as far as he could tell. There was still one problem, though. “maybe  _ that’s _ not their fault. but what about last timeline?”

Everyone looked at Sans, and then back to Frisk. The human looked away. “I already told you about Chara,” they said to Sans.

“Ch-Chara?” Alphys asked. “Y-You mean, the… uh…”

“The king and queen’s human child, yes. Their spirit somehow got linked to mine from the very first time I fell. They kind of… followed me through the Underground each time. On my seventy-third trip through the Underground - after a particularly bad experience on the surface - they came up with an idea.

“Chara told me that instead of just… erasing the LV I got, they could store it for me. I would go through once, get a lot of LV, and then reset. Then, next time, I could use the LV to protect everyone.”

“that’s not how lv works, bud,” Sans told them.

“I didn’t know. I was desperate at that point. I was tired of dying, I was tired of watching all of  _ you _ die. So I agreed. And that time… I killed everyone.”

Silence fell on the room. “Everyone?” Undyne asked. She didn’t know what to feel; sure, she was pissed as hell, but she also felt powerless. That meant she didn’t protect everyone.

“I’m not proud of it,” they said.

“well, that’s all great,” Sans said. His tone had gone bitter. “but what happened after? because the last timeline  _ ended _ completely. what did you do?”

“I got to the judgement hall,” Frisk continued. “And you were there like always. You never fought me before, so I was caught off guard when you attacked me. Not to mention you sort of… broke what I assumed were rules of engagement all over the place. It was really frustrating - and also kind of cool, I guess. I died a lot - 147 times, if you’re curious.”

Sans blinked. He probably would’ve stopped counting at ten. “I eventually was able to predict you enough to get somewhere. Then, out of the blue, you did something unexpected - you tried to spare me. You asked me if I remembered a time when we were friends. And I did; all the guilt I had been blocking out finally caught up with me. Chara told me not to, but I laid down my weapon. And then… well. I got dunked on.

“I knew I deserved it, too. That was the worst part. You told me something just before I blacked out - that if we were really friends, I wouldn’t come back. So I decided that the LV wasn’t worth all of this, and I was going to reset and find another way. That’s when Chara took control.”

“TOOK… CONTROL?” Papyrus asked.

“Yes. Instead of waking up at the place I first fell, like I wanted to, I was back in the judgement hall, and I couldn’t move my body - Chara moved it instead. They started fighting Sans again, and I couldn’t stop them. It took a while, but eventually… they won.

“Then they killed Asgore, and Flowey… they had reached LV 20. Suddenly, I was back in control, and they were standing in front of me. They told me I was a great ‘partner.’ I kept telling myself that none of it was my fault, it was all Chara’s - but we both knew I was lying. Then, they gave me two options. Erase - or Do Not. Somehow, LV 20 gave them the power to destroy the entire timeline. I chose Do Not.”

“and?” Sans asked.

“They laughed at me, and they asked me, ‘since when were you the one in control?’ I woke up in darkness after that. I looked around for something; anything, any _ one.  _ But there was nothing there. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, Chara found me. They asked me if I wanted to go back to the world I destroyed, if I thought I was above consequences. And I told them yes. And then they sent me back.”

“to a new timeline. this one,” Sans surmised.

“Exactly. And here we all are.”

“So, they just… let you go? After all that?” Undyne asked.

Frisk was silent for a few moments. “No. I made a deal with them. One I can’t tell you about.”

Sans already knew what that deal was. Frisk had given Chara their  _ soul _ . That was… a lot to sacrifice, even if Frisk really had done all of those things. Maybe the kid really did care about them after all.

“THAT IS… QUITE THE STORY, FRISK,” Papyrus said, trying to clear out the awkward silence. “BUT THE IMPORTANT THING IS, WE ARE ALL STILL FRIENDS - AND NOW, WE CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY TO GET TO THE SURFACE THAT DOESN’T REQUIRE ANYONE GETTING HURT. RIGHT, EVERYONE?”

No one answered him. The silence returned, until Papyrus stubbornly pushed it away again. “OH, COME NOW,” he said, putting a hand on Frisk’s shoulder. “NO ONE IS DENYING THAT THE HUMAN HAS MADE… SOME VERY POOR DECISIONS AT TIMES. BUT THEY ALSO MADE SOME GOOD ONES! THEY HAVE BEEN IN AN EXTRAORDINARY POSITION FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW. CAN’T WE… GRANT THEM A LITTLE LEEWAY?”

“That’s not a  _ little _ leeway, Papyrus,” Undyne spat. “They KILLED all of us. MULTIPLE TIMES.”

Papyrus narrowed his eyes. “WOULD YOU HAVE DONE ANY DIFFERENT IF YOU WERE TRAPPED ON THE SURFACE, AWAY FROM YOUR PEOPLE, THINKING EVERYONE WANTED TO KILL YOU?”

Undyne spluttered a half-formed defense, but Papyrus was impressively perceptive when he wanted to be. She would have killed people, she realized. That thought disturbed her more than she would admit; would the humans have thought of her like she was thinking of Frisk? A demon? A murderer?

“I AM NOT SAYING WE SHOULD JUST FORGET WHAT HAPPENED,” Papyrus continued, “BUT THE HUMAN IS SORRY ABOUT EVERYTHING, AND THEY HAVE LEARNED FROM THEIR MISTAKES. RIGHT, FRISK?” Frisk nodded. “BESIDES, WE ARE ALL HERE, SAFE AND SOUND NOW, AND NO ONE IS DEAD.”

“... I need to think on this,” Undyne said, stomping off. “Come on, Alphys. Let’s talk.”

“O-O-Okay,” Alphys trotted after her.

“DON’T WORRY, FRISK. THEY’LL COME AROUND,” Papyrus gave them a pat on the back. “IN THE MEANTIME… SANS? WOULD YOU WALK WITH ME? I HAVE SOMETHING I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT… PRIVATELY.”

“sure thing, pap,” Sans sighed. He wasn’t looking forward to this conversation. The skeletons walked off, leaving Frisk alone in the laboratory.


	10. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conversations are had.

Undyne and Alphys stopped in a corridor filled with mirrors and golden flowers; after looking back to make sure the others were out of earshot, Undyne sat cross-legged on the floor, facing the reptilian monster. “Okay,” she said. “I don’t want to deal with all the human’s crap right now. You had some stuff you wanted to get off your chest, and we all got caught up in Frisk’s… whatever it was. So spill it.” She left no room for argument. Undyne could practically feel steam coming out of her ears. She knew whatever Alphys had to say probably wasn’t going to be pleasant either, but it had to be less infuriating than the human’s little monologue. Besides, listening to Alphys always seemed to calm her down.

Alphys sat down across from her, avoiding eye contact. “S-So, um… like you were reading… I was working with a substance c-called determination. Asgore wanted m-me to find a way to p-preserve monster souls so w-we could use them to cross the barrier.”

“Yeah, yeah, I read that part. I mean, it’s kinda cool, I guess, but… a little morbid?”

“I-I know. B-But I only used monsters that had f-fallen down. It wasn’t like I e-experimented on living m-monsters, or--”

“Hey, calm down! I believe you. You were doing what you had to. I didn’t mean to imply anything.” Undyne didn’t want Alphys to panic. Sure, she was kinda cute when she was flustered, but the last thing either of them needed right now was more stress.

“I-It’s okay. So, um, anyway… I injected the d-dying monsters with determination. And for a while, nothing happened. I s-started getting frustrated, and kept injecting them, until… until one day, they all just woke up.”

“Woah, wait - they  _ woke up _ ? Are you saying you brought them back to life?” Undyne’s eye widened.

“Y-Yes.”

“Alphys, that’s… that’s incredible! You saved people’s lives! I don’t know what you’re so ashamed about.” She put on one of her big grins.

“I didn’t finish,” Alphys said, her voice barely above a whisper. “They did w-wake up, for a while. I ran some tests, and they seemed f-fine, so… I called their families and t-told them I would send back their loved ones the n-next day. But then… overnight… everything w-went wrong.

“I d-didn’t know it then, but… determination has adverse effects on the b-body. Physical matter m-minimizes the damage, but none of the monsters had very much of that. They all… they all…”

Undyne turned from watching Alphys intently to one of the weird mirrors on the wall; her reflection suddenly morphed into some crazy, hideous beast. Undyne jumped up and readied a spear as some sort of white ooze squelched out from around the glass and took the shape of… something.

“Get behind me!’ She shouted, shoving Alphys backward and away from the creature. She raised the spear over her head and prepared to strike.

“Wait, wait!” Alphys shouted, reaching up to grab her arm. “D-Don’t hurt it!”

Undyne looked back at her. “Why not?! Are you crazy?”

Undyne stared, dumbfounded, as Alphys walked forward and pulled a bag of popato chisps out of the pocket of her lab coat. The whatever-it-was formed what looked like a beak and took it from her hand before dissolving back into the wall.

Alphys sighed. “The monsters all m-melted,” she said looking at the ground. “They melted t-together into… those things. I call them a-amalgamates. Do you ss-ee now? I stopped answering the ph-phone, I stopped going o-outside, I just… tried to d-disappear. I was so afraid that everyone w-would hate me for what I did, and I just…” Her voice cracked. Tears started to drip from her eyes, and her hands reached up to cover them. “I’m such a coward.”

Undyne stepped forward and kneeled down so that she was closer to Alphys’ eye level. “...Look. You made some really,  _ really _ big mistakes. I’ll admit that. But you were trying to do a good thing. And yeah… not telling everyone… that was pretty cowardly. But you’re here now trying to fix it, aren’t you? That’s what matters.”

Alphys still wouldn’t look at her. Undyne sighed. “Ugh… look, I’m not good at all this feelsy crap. I just want you to know…” Undyne growled in annoyance, trying to find the right words, “I just… I like you, okay? I really do. And I wish I knew about all of this sooner, because I would have helped you through all of it. But I know now, and I’m not leaving your side. Got it?”

Alphys sniffed and finally looked at her. Undyne wrapped her arms around the lizard monster and pulled her close. Alphys laid her head on her shoulder.

“Thank you,” Alphys breathed. She put her own arms around Undyne’s neck.

Normally, Undyne preferred big, rough bear hugs and giving people noogies, but she had to admit… this was nice.

* * *

Papyrus sat down on one of the many beds in the particular room he and Sans had entered and motioned for his brother to join him. Sans hopped up onto it half-heartedly. Papyrus had been in many interesting situations, but this topped all of thim. He made a new friend, and it was a human; but said friend had weird time-travel powers that Papyrus wasn’t sure he completely understood, and had used said powers to kill Papyrus and his brother and all of his friends multiple times. But then, they also used the powers to un-kill everyone, and get them all to the surface - but now everyone was mad at them, and… it was all very complicated. For once in his life, the skeleton found himself at a loss for words.

“SANS,” he said, finally asking something.

“yeah, bro?”

“YOU… YOU HAVE KNOWN ABOUT ALL OF THIS FOR SOME TIME NOW, HAVEN’T YOU?”

Sans sighed and scratched his phalanges across the top of his cranium. “sort of. i didn’t know what exactly was going on. i just knew that someone was messing around with time.”

“YES, BUT… YOU KNEW THAT BAD THINGS WERE HAPPENING IN SOME OF THE TIMELINES, DIDN’T YOU?” Papyrus folded his hands together. He really didn’t like to pry, especially with Sans. Sans just became more closed off the more you asked him. But Papyrus needed to know.

“...yeah. sometimes i’d dream about what happened in the last timeline. either way, it just made it kinda… hard to wake up in the morning.” Sans gave his slippers a thousand-yard stare.

“BUT NOT ALL OF THE TIMELINES WERE BAD! WHAT ABOUT THE ONES WHERE WE GOT TO THE SURFACE? DIDN’T THOSE DREAMS MAKE YOU HAPPY?” Papyrus was looking for some optimism in this whole mess.

“not really, pap. every time i wake up, i get this… déjà vu. it feels like everything i do, everything everyone says… already happened before. i just… i never saw a point to trying when i’m just going to wake up in that bed again, back to square one like nothing ever happened, y’know?” Sans looked up. His face was stuck in a permanent grin like always, but Papyrus could tell when he was frowning. The corners of his jaw sagged down and his eyes dimmed.

“I… SUPPOSE I CAN SEE YOUR POINT. BUT SANS… WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME? I COULD HAVE HELPED YOU FIGURE THINGS OUT!”

“i’m pretty sure i did. the first couple of times, anyway. i’m pretty sure i tried to fix things, when the resets first started. but every time i told you, you’d forget after the next reset. i’d check what timeline we were on every morning, and each time… i failed. the number just kept going up and up, and i just… stopped trying.”

“I… SEE,” Papyrus said. That explained a lot of things about Sans’ recent behavior, he realized. For Papyrus, Sans had started acting strangely only a short time ago; for Sans, it must have felt like ages. “I’M SORRY I COULDN’T BE THERE FOR YOU,” Papyrus told him.

“papyrus, don’t--”

“NO. I COULDN’T BE THERE FOR YOU WHEN YOU NEEDED ME THE MOST. THERE WAS NOTHING EITHER OF US REALLY COULD HAVE DONE,” Papyrus sighed. He hated admitting a failure, but it was true. “HOWEVER - I AM HERE NOW AND I PLAN ON BEING HERE FOR YOU FROM NOW ON. THE HUMAN HAS TOLD US THE TRUTH, THEY ARE SORRY FOR WHAT HAPPENED, AND NOW WE ALL HAVE A CHANCE TO MOVE ON - FOR REAL, THIS TIME.  WE ARE GOING TO FIGURE EVERYTHING OUT. I JUST KNOW IT! BUT FIRST, WE  _ ALL _ HAVE TO GIVE FRISK A SECOND CHANCE.” Papyrus gave Sans a big smile.

Sans smiled back weakly. “i wish i was as strong as you, bro. i just… i wish i didn’t drag you down all the time. you deserve someone better. someone that would have kept trying to make you happy.” Sans looked away. “i don’t know why you bother with me.” His eyelights flickered out.

Papyrus reached over and wrapped Sans in a big hug. “I BOTHER BECAUSE I LOVE YOU,” he said, “YOU BONEHEAD.” Sans chuckled, wiping his eye-sockets with his sleeve, which brightened Papyrus’ mood a little. “AND YOU DO MAKE ME HAPPY! YOU ALWAYS ENCOURAGE ME WHEN I NEED IT THE MOST, YOU MAKE ME SMILE - EVEN IF IT IS WITH YOUR ATROCIOUS PUNS - AND I THINK IT’S ABOUT TIME I DID THE SAME FOR YOU.”

“ya already do, bro. you’re... you mean everything to me. i hope you know that. you’re the one that keeps me going.” He returned Papyrus’ hug. “hey, bro,” he said, rapping his knuckles on the headboard behind Papyrus. “knock knock.”

“NO. PLEASE, NO.”

“c’mon, papyrus. knock knock.”

“UGH, FINE. WHO’S THERE?”

“boo.”

“BOO WHO?”

“aw, pap, don’t cry. the joke isn’t that bad.”

“OH MY GOD! YOU ARE TERRIBLE. ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE,” Papyrus said as he facepalmed, trying to cover up the smile creeping onto his face. Sans laughed, genuinely this time. “BUT I AM GLAD TO SEE YOU ARE FEELING BETTER. COME ON, LET’S GO FIND FRISK.”

Sans nodded and Papyrus lifted him up onto his shoulders.

* * *

Sans looked around the area from atop his brother’s shoulders. “this is where we left ‘em,” he confirmed. “wonder where they went?” Papyrus turned around. Sans nearly fell off of his shoulders in shock - there, a few inches from his face, was Frisk, hanging from the ceiling. They were tied up with some sort of vines; they shook their head violently at him.

“what the--”

Then everything went black.


	11. Let's Try a New Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flowey would like to be brought up to speed.

Sans’ eye-sockets blinked open. He felt like he’d just been tackled by Undyne. Drowsily, he looked around. He was in… Hotland? He recognized the telltale glow of the region’s lava all around him. He probably fell asleep at his hot dog stand again - or maybe just his Hotland station. Although, he never really used that station much in the first place. There weren’t many customers, nor any giant doors for practicing knock-knock jokes.

It was then that he realized he was pinned to a wall by his wrists, a dozen feet in the air. “Morning, sunshine,” a cheery voice said. Flowey rose up from the ground on a long stem to sneer in Sans’ face. “Finally, you’re awake. I was starting to get impatient.”

Clarity returned to Sans quickly, now. He looked around frantically. “where’s papyrus?” Sans couldn’t see him anywhere. They were just together - he remembered that much from before he fell unconscious.

“Relax, trashbag. He’s not dead - not yet, anyway. But he is a little tied up at the moment.” Sans’ hands scraped against rock uncomfortably as Flowey dragged him towards Alphys’ lab and pried open the doors. The large monitor was now focused on Papyrus, who was tied up in a cage suspended over a pool of lava by a thick vine. He was struggling to untie himself, to no avail.

“So, here’s the deal. You’re going to answer my questions for me. And, if you even think about teleporting away, I drop the cage - and there’s no way you’ll be able to search through Hotland fast enough to find him. Make sense?” The vines twisted painfully around Sans’ wrists.

Sans felt panic begin to bubble up through his ribcage. “alright, alright! just don’t hurt him,” he said. He was trying not to sound desperate, but it wasn’t easy.

“Great!” Flowey said, mock cheer threading its way through his voice. “Question number one: where did you and Frisk disappear to after your little date at Grillby’s?”

“that wasn’t really a date,” Sans said, stalling for… something. He looked at his surroundings, trying to find anything that could help him. He noticed for the first time that Flowey had Frisk pinned to the wall across from him.  They were already awake, staring at Sans and then Flowey in turn. They weren’t going to be much help. Sans’ arms were really beginning to ache from holding the rest of his body up.

“I really don’t care. Answer me,” Flowey growled.

“we went to a little place in waterfall,” Sans lied.

Flowey brought him away from the wall and slammed him back into it. Sans shouted in pain; it felt like the back of his skull had cracked a little. His meager amount of HP dropped.

“I checked there. Try again.”

“fine. we went down into the real lab.”

Another slam. Sans’ vision blurred. “One more wrong answer and I start pulling off fingers,” he threatened.

“we... we were in my basement,” Sans huffed, breathing heavily. He was trying to stay conscious.

“See, was that so hard? What did you guys talk about?”

“they were warning me about you,” Sans said, weakly trying to pull his wrists free.

“I figured that part out. What else?”

“that was it,” Sans told him. He couldn’t let Flowey know the actual conversation, under any circumstances - even if it killed him.

“You know, I’m really getting sick of these little games,” Flowey said. He took a vine and poked it at Sans’ chest to accentuate his point. Then, something unexpected happened.

Sans screamed in pain. It was just a tap - a hard tap, maybe, but still - and suddenly, he was in so much pain that he couldn’t even think clearly. The pain ran in a diagonal line across his ribcage; he was certain he’d never hurt this much, but the sensation felt oddly familiar.

Flowey lifted the vine off of Sans’ sternum, and the pain ebbed. Sans gasped for air instinctively, trying to put air back into his body. “Well that’s new,” Flowey remarked, consumed by curiosity. “You’ve never done  _ that _ before.” He poked again, much harder this time, and Sans thought he was going to die.

“p-please... don’t! stop!” Sans started begging, and red liquid started to trickle out of his mouth.

“Stop it!” Frisk shouted over Sans’ cries. The skeleton’s mind was clouded with pain, but it sounded like the human was genuinely concerned for a moment - he chalked it up to his own confusion. Flowey lifted the pressure and turned to his other prisoner.

“You know, Chara, I get that you’re trying to play goody-two-shoes this time around, but your method acting is getting  _ really _ annoying.”

“Who says I’m acting? And I’m  _ not _ Chara.” Frisk’s voice returned to its usual flat tone.

“Ha ha, very funny. If you’re not Chara, then who are you?”

“My name is Frisk,” they told him.

“Right, right. Since the bonehead isn’t being helpful, let’s try a new game,  _ Frisk _ . Since you’re  _ so concerned _ about him…” Sans felt a vine wrap loosely around his ribcage, “ _ you _ can answer my questions. Otherwise, I start squeezing.” He demonstrated with a light contraction of the vine, making Sans shout. “Since you clearly don’t want what’s going on to happen, why don’t you start with why you haven’t loaded a save yet?”

Frisk adjusted themself in their vine cocoon. “My last save isn’t far enough back to change anything. You’d just catch us again.”

Flowey nodded his head contemplatively. “I guess that makes sense. See, Sans? Things are so much easier when you just cooperate.” He shook Sans around a little, and the skeleton groaned in discomfort.

“Next question. What were you and Sans talking about?”

Frisk was silent for a moment, but they still answered. “I told him about my powers, and the previous timelines. That’s it.”

Flowey squeezed hard, and Sans tried to figure out why he hadn’t exploded into shards of bone yet. He couldn’t hear himself think over the sound of his own screaming; he kicked out at the vines with his legs, looking for any way to stop the pain. It wasn’t any use.

“You’re lying,” Flowey said in a sing-song voice as he released the death-grip on Sans. Frisk’s jaw clenched tightly; then they gave a little laugh.

“Of course I am.”

“Huh?” Flowey’s face went from angry to confused.

“It’s just so fun to play with you, Azzy,” Frisk told him cheerily. “Just like old times, huh?” They gave a sadistic chuckle.

“B-But… you… Sans…”

“Do you  _ really _ think I care what happens to that lazy sack of bones? To be perfectly honest, it’s quite entertaining to watch him suffer,” Frisk giggled. Sans was too incapacitated to tell whether they were bluffing or not. “Go ahead and tear him in half, if you want. I wonder how long the pieces will last until they turn into dust?”

“You’re a sick freak, aren’t you?” Flowey said, almost amused.

“Oh, you have no idea,” they smiled. “So keep playing with the skeleton. There’s nothing you can do to him that will make me want to answer you.”

Flowey smiled wickedly. “But I bet I can do something to you.” With one swift movement, one of Flowey’s vines drilled itself into Frisk’s thigh. They clenched their teeth, muscles seizing up from the pain. Then, the vine began to crawl up  _ under _ their skin.

Sans started to regain his senses as Frisk started screaming. He still didn’t know whether Frisk was trying to take Flowey’s attention off of him or if they really would enjoy watching him get torn in half, but he decided that the kid howling in pain like that was  _ not _ okay.

“WHY HAVEN’T YOU RESET, CHARA?” Flowey demanded.

“I… hrk! I was stalling!”

“For what?”

Frisk looked towards the lab. “For that.”


	12. The Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk and the skeleton brothers are in need of a rescue.

It had taken a little while, but Undyne had finally found Papyrus: dangling over a lake of lava, trapped in a cage. She took a deep breath, dumped the last of her water over her head, and stuck a spear into the side of the cliff. Papyrus looked up.

“UNDYNE!” He shouted, overjoyed. “I KNEW YOU WOULD FIND ME! HAVE YOU SEEN SANS OR FRISK?” He struggled onto his knees, rocking the cage in the process.

“Alphys is taking care of them,” Undyne told him, panting heavily as she made a spear-staircase for herself. The heat was almost unbearable. With one fierce leap and a battle cry, she flew across the lava and grabbed onto the bars, slipping down a little ways before catching herself.

“BE CAREFUL, UNDYNE!” Papyrus shouted, worried for his friend. “THIS PLACE IS… NOT REALLY IN YOUR ELEMENT.”

“I know,” Undyne growled as she readjusted her hands. Inch by inch, she pried open the bars. The hot metal practically steamed against her skin as it squealed. “Get over here,” she commanded once they were open enough. Papyrus scooted over to her; she put her head in the cage, put her mouth on the dead vines binding the skeleton’s hands, and tore them off with her teeth. Papyrus quickly freed himself from the rest of his bonds.

Undyne climbed away from the opening she had made, breathing heavy with exertion. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get out of there! It isn’t getting any cooler,” she shouted. Sweat dripped down her face.

Papyrus nodded and climbed gracefully from the prison, taking care to rock the cage as little as possible. He leapt across the chasm and grabbed onto one of the spears Undyne had left, then pulled himself up and began to ascend. Undyne followed close behind him. Her vision was starting to blur, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. She collapsed as they reached the top of the cliff, sprawling out onto the rocks. 

“UNDYNE!” Papyrus shouted, kneeling down beside her. She had fallen unconscious. Papyrus took a deep breath, picked her up with his blue magic, and began looking for some water.

* * *

A feral roar pierced the air as an orange laser sliced through half a dozen vines outside the lab. “N-Now, Asgore!” Alphys shouted, double checking that Papyrus and Undyne were clear of the cage. The king dashed forward and caught the little skeleton in his arms.

The boss monster looked down. Sans’ eye-lights had shrunk to pinpoints with shock; something red and blood-like trickled out from between his teeth, and he wrapped his arms around his ribcage protectively. “Howdy, Sans,” Asgore said as he put on a smile for him. Sans looked completely bewildered. “When this is all over, would you like to have a cup of tea with me?”

Sans blinked at him. “uh... sure?” He sounded like he was in pain.

“Asgore! L-Look out!” Alphys shouted at him from the lab as she recalibrated her portable laser. She understood that he wanted to make sure Sans was okay, but there was a demonic flower to deal with currently.

A fleet of sharpened vines flew at Asgore just as Alphys gave him the warning. He held Sans close to his chest with one hand, and then conjured his red trident with the other. He twirled the weapon all around him, knocking the attack away. Then, he pointed the trident at the set of vines holding the flower’s second prisoner and unleashed a torrent of flames. The foliage burned away, and the human plummeted toward the ground. Asgore jumped over another wave of low-aimed vines, dismissed his weapon, and caught the child with his other arm. They were unconscious.

Alphys skittered forward as the flower-monster growled angrily. “YOU’RE ALL REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF!” His voice certainly sounded demonic.

“S-Sans!” Alphys shouted as she reached them. “C-Can you teleport us? Coordinates H7-24!” 

The skeleton blinked dizzily, but still managed to open a portal beneath the group. They fell somewhere else in hotland as more vines crashed together over their heads.

“OH, THANK GOODNESS!” Papyrus shouted, carrying Undyne in his arms with the aid of his blue magic. “IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT? WE NEED TO GET UNDYNE SOME WATER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

Alphys looked at Sans as Asgore set him gingerly on the ground. He staggered, but remained on his feet, clutching his ribs. “S-Sans? Do you know a-anywhere safe we c-can hide?”

“m-maybe... i can try,” he told her, breathing heavily. He looked pretty shaken up. Alphys noticed there were tear stains on his cheekbones - just what had Flowey done to him? He opened another portal, and the group stepped into the cold of Snowdin. 

“I-Is this the, uh… Ruins d-door?” Alphys asked.

“yeah... gimme a sec,” Sans answered. He walked towards the door weakly and gave it a knock.

“Oh!” a voice said from the other side. “Who’s there?” She sounded somewhat melancholy, but it appeared she had been expecting him.

“doctor,” Sans said. Papyrus frowned disapprovingly, but said nothing.

“Doctor who?”

“doctor us, we’ve got injures out here,” he said.

“Ha… ha… my friend, I am not sure that joke was in very good taste.” Asgore’s eyes widened as he recognized the voice.

“i wish i was joking. i know what you told me, but… please, you’ve gotta let us into the ruins. something bad’s happened, and we need help.”

“Who is ‘we’?” she asked, immediately growing concerned. “Is your brother here? Have you seen my child?”

“i got both of ‘em out here. kid’s not doing so hot. please... i wouldn’t ask if there was anywhere else to go.”

The group heard a sigh from the other side. “Very well. Stand aside, please.” The door to the ruins slid open slowly as a second boss monster appeared. “My word! What happened?” She looked down at the skeleton.

“...long story,” he answered.

“Come inside, quickly. Who else needs…” She glanced up, looking for more injured souls. Then she saw the king, holding the human. Her hands flew up to her mouth. “What… what have you done?” Her voice had dropped to a whisper, tears pooling in her eyes.

“kid’s alive,” Sans told her, still cradling his aching ribs with one hand as he tugged at her sleeve with the other to get her attention. “asgore’s the one who saved ‘em. but they won’t be around much longer unless they get some help.” Toriel walked out of the door and marched up to Asgore.

“T...Toriel?” A smile crept onto Asgore’s face. “You’re--”

Toriel silenced him with a slap to the face. “Give them to me. Now.” Asgore gingerly laid the child in her arms, taken aback. “What has happened to them?”

“Um, maybe it’s b-best if we explain l-later,” Alphys piped in, glancing between the two similar-looking boss monsters. Everyone present looked confused. 

Toriel put her hand on the unconscious child’s cheek, gazing down at them worriedly. “...Very well.”

She ushered everyone inside - giving Asgore a long, suspicious glare as she did so - and then sealed the door shut. She ran up the stairs, laid Frisk on their bed, and immediately began flooding their body with healing magic. They were bleeding heavily from their leg, and a large part of their body was covered in strange, vein-like bruises. On closer inspection… it looked as if something was still under their skin.

Horrified, Toriel burned whatever it was away with her fire magic, removing the obstruction but not harming her child. She sealed the rest of the wound as best she could, but something of this magnitude would require time to heal properly. But her child was alive, and that was the important part.

Papyrus followed her into the house and set Undyne down into the reading chair in the living room; Alphys scampered around until she found the kitchen and returned with two glasses of water. She dumped one over Undyne’s head and then put the other off to the side for her to drink later.

Toriel left the child’s room and closed the door gingerly, then joined everyone in the living room. She watched Asgore suspiciously, who was standing in the corner, twiddling his furry paws nervously. She walked up to Undyne and began examining her. “This one is dehydrated, but she should be fine given some rest. Let me see your injuries, my friend,” she beckoned to Sans, and he walked over slowly.

“m’fine,” he lied. “make sure everyone else is okay first.”

“You are NOT fine,” she said, kneeling down so she could get a better look at him. “You are  _ bleeding _ , and you are holding your ribs as if they were broken. Now let me see.”

Sans reluctantly shrugged off his jacket and pulled up his t-shirt. It was nowhere near as bad as it felt, but it still looked serious. There were hairline fractures in a diagonal line across his ribcage. Toriel passed her hand over the injured area, and the cracks sealed up. “They will still be fragile for some time, so I recommend you rest as well,” she told him. Sans nodded and took a seat at the nearby table. Toriel turned to Papyrus.

“You must be Papyrus,” she said, smiling a little as she took a deep breath. “It is a pleasure to meet you - although I wish it were under different circumstances.”

“THE PLEASURE IS MINE…. UM… BEARDLESS ASGORE-CLONE?”

Toriel blinked, and then started giggling uncontrollably. “You may call me Toriel, dear,” she said after a while.

“OH, OKAY!” Papyrus tried to smile as an awkward silence fell on the room. “ARE YOU… A FRIEND OF SANS?” he asked.

“Sans? Is that your name?” Toriel turned to the other skeleton, who nodded with a smile. She smiled back. “Then yes, I suppose I am.” She looked around the room. “I suppose we all have some explaining to do, do we not?”


	13. Moving Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang decides what to do with Frisk.

“So yes, I was queen of the Underground,” Toriel finished, sitting in her reading chair like she was telling a children’s story. Undyne was awake - and very unhappy - and Asgore sat in the back, looking completely downtrodden. Papyrus sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Toriel, listening intently, Sans leaned up against the wall beside him, and Alphys sat nervously between the king and the royal guard captain. “Now - apart from Sans, Papyrus, and _you_ ,” Toriel said, practically spitting venom as she looked at Asgore, “I am not acquainted with the rest of you. Would you mind introducing yourselves?”

Undyne spoke first. “I’m Undyne, Captain of the Royal Guard.” She glared at Toriel the entire time; the queen either didn’t notice, or chose to ignore it. “And this is Alphys, the new Royal Scientist.” The fish-monster put an arm around Alphys, and she started blushing heavily.

“I… see. Do all of you know my child?” Toriel looked around the room.

“Yeah. Frisk and I are _besties_ ,” Undyne told her, somewhat smugly.

“Frisk? Who is - my word! Is that their name? I never… How did I never think to ask their name?” Toriel looked legitimately distraught. Sans had to hold back a snicker for what had seemed to become a running joke.

As if on cue, Frisk opened the door to their room and joined the monsters around the fireplace. “My child!” Toriel said, rushing over to them. They appeared to be limping heavily. “You should be resting. Please, go back to bed.” She laid her hands on their shoulders, leading them back to their room.

“I’m fine for right now, mom. We all have some really important things to talk about.” Everyone looked at the pair of them curiously at the mention of the word ‘mom’.

Toriel frowned, but took her hands off of Frisk’s shoulders. “I suppose we do. For one, I want to know who _did_ this to you.” She gestured to their leg, and cast a suspicious glance at Asgore.

“A monster by the name of Flowey,” Frisk told her. “I was mostly unconscious on the way here, but I’m pretty sure I remember something furry carrying me. Asgore’s the only one it could have been. So, thank you for saving my life, Mr. Dreemurr,” they said, giving the king a little smile. He gave a little smile and little wave back. Toriel gave him another sharp look, but didn’t press the issue further.

“hey, papyrus,” Sans prodded his brother with a finger. “why don’t you explain the stuff frisk told us down in the lab to the king an’ queen here? i bet they’d appreciate it.”

“OH! ALRIGHT!” Papyrus hopped up off of the ground, excited to be doing something productive. “THAT’S AN EXCELLENT IDEA, BROTHER!”

“in the meantime, you wanna follow me, kiddo? i wanna talk to you for a little while. alone.” Sans walked towards Frisk’s room, and they followed behind him.

Asgore spoke as they shut the door. “Papyrus, Alphys has already been kind enough to explain the situation to me. Perhaps you could talk with Toriel somewhere in private? I would like to speak to Alphys and Undyne, if you don’t mind.”

“THAT IS FINE, YOUR MAJESTY. IS THERE SOMEWHERE WE CAN GO, YOUR OTHER MAJESTY?”

“I told you, you may just call me Toriel, dear. And yes, my room is this way, if you’ll follow me.” Papyrus and Toriel also walked away.

“So, what did you want to talk about, Asgore?” Undyne asked as the three were left alone in the room.

“Well, first of all, I did not have the chance to apologize to you in all of the commotion outside, Alphys,” Asgore said, walking over to her.

“A-Apologize? What f-for?”

“For putting you in charge of those experiments,” he said. Then, he knelt down and wrapped her in a giant hug. She started blushing and sputtering uncontrollably. “I am _so_ sorry that I did not know what was going on. You should not have had to face those mistakes alone, especially when I am the one who put you up to the task in the first place. You and Undyne are some of my dearest friends. I do hope you can forgive me.” He hugged her a little tighter and sighed.

“O-Oh, that’s… not your f-fault, Asgore. I h-handled the s-situation really p-poorly.” She gingerly returned the hug, still taken a little bit by surprise.

“Still. I put you in a dangerous position, experimenting on monsters that had fallen down. I am so very sorry.”  
“I-I forgive you,” she told him, beginning to get a little uncomfortable. “A-Asgore, please don’t c-cry - if you cry, then I’ll c-cry, and it’ll be one giant m-mess.”

Asgore gave a little laugh and finally let her go. “Very well. Then, we all must decide how to proceed.” He stood up and looked to Undyne. “I must confess, I… do not know how to handle this human child. I know that monsterkind relies on the capture of their soul, but…” he glanced towards Toriel’s room, “I am not sure I could harm someone that called Toriel ‘mom’.”

“Well, _I_ could,” Undyne said, crossing her arms. “The little brat deserves some payback for everything they did.”

“I-I’m not sure about that, U-Undyne,” Alphys told her. Undyne looked down at the lizard-monster curiously. “I d-don’t think it’s fair for m-me to w-withhold my forgiveness when they g-gave me theirs so freely.”

“What do you mean?” Undyne asked her.

“W-Well… they’ve been in an impossible position f-for a really long time now. And a lot of the t-time, we were the ones that put them in that position. I mean, all any of us have ever done is cause p-problems for them.”

“That’s not true! Alphys, you--”

“It _is_ true, Undyne,” Alphys told her. “I mean, Papyrus kept t-trying to capture them, you two k-kept trying to _kill_ them, and I made them go through a g-gauntlet of really dangerous p-puzzles - puzzles that might actually have killed them a f-few times, n-now that I think about it. B-But they still decided to c-come back and fix _our_ problems, despite everything we d-did to them. After all the mistakes I’ve m-made… I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t give them a second chance. So, that’s what I’m going to d-do.” Alphys finished her little speech and took a deep breath.

Asgore nodded. “I believe Alphys is right. They have done much for us in the past, and we never had the opportunity to give something back. Perhaps this is our chance.” Both monsters looked towards Undyne.

“Ugh, fine,” she said. “I guess you’re right. And I do kinda like them, I guess. The kid’s got some serious spunk.” She put on a big grin. “Alright. Let me know if they come looking for me. I’m gonna go do some rounds to make sure that little flower freak doesn’t show up again.” Undyne walked off towards the basement. “He might have caught the skeletons by surprise, but he’s got another thing coming if he wants to hurt anyone while I’m here.”

* * *

Sans and Frisk hopped up onto the bed. “so, first things first,” Sans said. “me an’ pap had a talk, and uh… well. i’ll let you off the hook this time,” he told them. “just... never do that again, ‘kay?” Frisk nodded gratefully. “good. second thing - i got a kinda morbid question to ask ya’.” Frisk turned to look at him, waiting expectantly. Sans sighed. “how uh… how did you kill me last time?”

Frisk raised an eyebrow. “I memorized your attack patterns until I could dodge the majority of them. That, and a lot of food.”

“no, not that part of it. i mean… _how_ did you kill me?”

Frisk was silent for a moment. “Knife slash across the ribs,” they answered, drawing a finger across their own chest. “Which brings me to a question for you: what did Flowey do to you?”

Just thinking about that particular encounter made Sans wince, but he answered anyway. “he just poked at me. but when he did, i got this searing pain - in a line across my chest.” He mimicked the movement Frisk had made earlier. “felt like i was dying all over again. you have any idea how that works?”

Frisk shook their head. “This hasn’t happened before, as far as you know, right?”

“i think i would remember something like that,” he told them.

“Well, if neither me nor Flowey remember, it must be something entirely new. I’m not sure how to feel about that.” Frisk stared at the wall contemplatively. Then they turned to him. “Has it been… sensitive like that the entire time?”

“i dunno. no one poked be in the sternum until then.”

Frisk lifted their finger. “May I?”

Sans shifted away a little. “tibia honest here, kid, i really don’t wanna go through that again.” His hand reflexively shot up to protect his chest.

Frisk raised their hands in a non-threatening manner. “I might have a theory. But I have to see if this works,” they told him. “I won’t push too hard, I promise.”

Sans sighed and adjusted himself on the bed. He closed his eyes and braced himself with his hands. “alright. Just be careful, ‘kay?”

Frisk leaned forward and gently poked his sternum; nothing happened. Confused, Sans looked down and Frisk’s finger. They poked a little harder, and then a little more, and still Sans felt nothing besides mild discomfort. Frisk leaned back.

“i swear that hurt like hell just a little while ago,” he told them.

“I believe you,” Frisk said. “Maybe it has something to do with determination.” Sans cocked his head, asking for an explanation. “Maybe Flowey’s determination… linked you to what happened last timeline, somehow. That’s the only thing I can think of.”

Cogs started to turn in Sans’ skull as the scientific part of his mind blinked to life. “the determination is what lets you manipulate the timelines, right? if that’s the case, it might act as some sort of temporal stabilizer and magnify the echo effect between timelines…”

“Echo effect?” Frisk asked, trying to keep up with Sans.

“it’s a theory me an’ a… friend came up with a while back. if something happens in multiple timelines, then it tends to ‘echo’ out into nearby ones - either the event or signs of the event take place, even if they don’t make any sense within the context of that particular timeline. but for physical distortion like this, it would take a lot of repetitions to actually have a noticeable effect…” A horrible thought entered Sans’ mind. “kid... was last time _really_ the only time you killed me?”

“Yes. But it might not have been the only time you died.” They didn’t seem fazed by his sudden cold tone.

“...run that by my again?”

“I assume you’ve figured out some things about Flowey by now, right?”

Sans thought about it. “he controlled the resets before you did,” he surmised.

“Exactly. And, from what I can tell, he controlled them for a very long time. It’s very possible he’s killed you before, and then reset.”

“in the exact same way that you did last time?”

Frisk frowned. “That, I don’t know how to explain - but I really only killed you once. I don’t know what else I can say to convince you.”

Sans sighed and rubbed his eye-sockets. “look, buddy - i’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt here, alright? you took a bullet for me back with the weed, and i’m not gonna overlook that.” He gestured to Frisk’s leg. “i just wanna know why. you can’t care about me, right? so why pull his attention off of me?” Sans had thought the entire encounter over, and decided that was what Frisk had done. Their wording was far too clever to have been a mistake.

“I don’t know,” Frisk said. “Something happened. There was just a brief moment that I felt… something. A lot of things, actually - fear, concern, anger, hatred - and as quickly as came, it left. Before I knew it I was redirecting his attention, and here we are.”

Sans nodded. “that means you’re still connected to your soul somehow. that’s a good thing, at least. so, uh… that means chara’s still following you around, huh?”

“No,” Frisk said. “They haven’t shown up at all this entire timeline, and it makes me nervous. I think… I think I might have felt their presence during my… episode, but that’s it. I don’t know where they are or what they’re doing with my soul.”

“well, i guess that’s something we’ll have to figure out.” Sans hopped off of the bed, and Frisk looked at him curiously. “we’re gonna help you out here, kiddo. alright? as best we can, anyway. i don’t think you’ve given us the whole story,” he said, and Frisk nodded reluctantly, “and while i expect the whole one eventually… for now, can we just move forward? i won’t judge you for anything you did in past timelines, and you put what we did behind you. sound good?” Frisk gave a small smile and nodded.

“great. then c’mere, pal.” Sans opened his arms up, and Frisk stood up to hug him. Sans was tired of trying to guess the human’s motives all of the time. For now, he wanted to do exactly as he said - move forward. If it screwed him over later, oh well - if that was the case, he probably never had a shot in the first place. Sans let go of Frisk as he realized the gesture couldn’t actually mean anything to them. He opened the door. “let’s go meet up with everyone and decide what to do next.”


	14. Making Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang decides how to deal with Flowey.

“Still no sign of him,” Undyne said as she came up the stairs. “We’re clear for now. So, what are we gonna do?”

The entire group had gathered in the living room; Asgore and Papyrus stood guard at the entrances to the room in case Flowey decided to pop up uninvited.

“WELL, OUR FIRST COURSE OF ACTION SHOULD BE TO FIND FLOWEY, OF COURSE. HE NEEDS TO EXPLAIN WHY HE ATTACKED ALL OF US!”

Undyne raised an eyebrow. “I think he’s gone a little beyond that point, Papyrus,” she told him. “If I see that little weed, I’m not giving him a chance to talk before I ram a spear right through his fu--” Sans caught her eye with a sharp glare, “--uuuunny little face.”

“MAY I REMIND YOU THAT YOU WERE PLANNING TO DO THE SAME THING TO FRISK HERE?” Papyrus gestured to the human, who had settled into a chair in the middle of the room.

“Frisk’s different. Sure, I _thought_ they were going to hurt people, but they never actually did. _This_ time around, anyway.” Undyne gave Frisk a glare, but it had lost a significant amount of its earlier venom. “I mean, did you SEE what he did to your brother? He could barely walk by the time he found you guys, according to Alphys. Doesn’t that piss you off?”

“YES, I _AM_ EXTREMELY DISPLEASED WITH HIS TREATMENT OF MY BROTHER,” Papyrus answered, “BUT I AM SURE THERE IS AN EXPLANATION FOR HIS BEHAVIOR. AND WHILE I UNDERSTAND WE WERE ALL IN IMMEDIATE DANGER AND NEEDED TO ESCAPE, FLOWERY IS MY FRIEND AND I AM NOT SIMPLY GOING TO ABANDON HIM - ESPECIALLY WHEN HE IS SO CLEARLY IN NEED OF SOME GUIDANCE.”

Undyne was about to start arguing again, but she stopped as she looked at Alphys. “You got something to say, Alphys?” she asked. “Don’t be shy, then! Say it.”

Alphys stuttered for a few seconds, put on the spot. “W-Well… I a-actually know a few things a-about, um… Flowey. I, uh… may have accidentally created him d-during my determination e-experiments?” She started laughing nervously. Toriel looked at her curiously, unaware of what she was talking about.

Sans gave Alphys a flat look. “you’re kidding me.”

Frisk joined into the conversation, covering for Alphys as she started to flounder. “He was supposed to be a vessel for the souls,” they explained. “Monsters can’t use monster souls, and humans can’t use human souls, so she needed something that was neither monster nor human - like a plant. She injected a flower with determination, and that became Flowey.”

“What is this about monster souls?” Toriel asked, giving Alphys a look of disgust. The lizard monster shrunk away and looked at the floor; Undyne stepped between them protectively and Asgore raised his hands to pacify everyone.

“Perhaps that is a story best saved for later,” he said. “There are more pressing matters to--”

“Do _not_ tell me what to do, Asgore,” Toriel spat at him. “Were you and this… Alphys _experimenting_ on monsters? That sounds exactly like the despicable sort of thing you would do, you pathetic whelp.”

A blue glow appeared in the room as Undyne summoned a spear. “Say one more bad thing about either of them, I _dare you_ ,” she growled. “I’ve had it up to _here_ with you, punk, and I don’t care if you’re the former queen. I’m sick of your whole ‘holier than thou’ schtick. So shut the hell up.”

“I would expect nothing less than violence from a sick child-killer like you,” Toriel shouted back defiantly. Flames appeared in her palm. “Get behind me, my child. You are not safe right now.”

Frisk instead struggled to their feet and instead stood between the two of them. Undyne ignored both people. “You know, considering the little punk has _killed_ all of us multiple times, I don’t know why you keep protecting them.”

“They are just a child. They cannot be held responsible for--”

“Like hell they’re not responsible. Punk’s perfectly capable of making their own decisions - just like the rest of us, and just like you, you filthy coward.”

“ENOUGH!” Frisk shouted. The room went silent - no one had ever heard them raise their voice before. Their face was still devoid of emotion, Sans noted. “I _am_ responsible for my own decisions. We have _all_ made some very big mistakes, and if we want to get through this, we all need to move on from them.” The human took a deep breath and looked between Undyne and Toriel. Undyne dismissed her spear with a hmph and sat down next to Alphys. Toriel reluctantly dissipated her flames and held her hands together in front of her.

Frisk turned to Papyrus, who looked very distraught. He really didn’t like to see his friends fighting. “As far as Flowey goes, Papyrus - we can talk to him if you want, but only after he isn’t a threat anymore. But, I have to warn you that it probably won’t work. Flowey doesn’t have a soul - and he’s been that way for a very long time. He’s physically incapable of caring about anyone; we’re all like pieces to a board game to him. I’m sorry, Papyrus, but he’s been deceiving you for a long time now.”  
Papyrus sighed and rested his skull on one of his gloves. “YES, WELL, IT SEEMS MOST OF MY FRIENDS HAVE A BAD HABIT OF DOING THAT.” Sans and Undyne glanced away. “I STILL WANT TO AT LEAST TRY, THOUGH. BUT I AGREE IT IS PROBABLY BEST THAT WE FIND A WAY TO STOP HIM FROM HURTING ANYONE FIRST.”

Frisk nodded. “To do that, we need a way to block his determination.”

“Why does his determination matter?” Undyne asked. “I thought you were the only one that could control time or whatever.”

“I… am. But Flowey’s determination competes with mine. If he gets a spike of it somehow, he could override my save and send us all back to square one. If I can convince him that I’ll just undo whatever damage he does, he’ll back off.” Frisk and Sans shared a look, but said nothing.

“W-Well, um… I m-might have an idea, then,” Alphys piped in. Everyone turned to her. “I s-still have some leftover d-determination in my l-lab. I c-could give Frisk an injection to, uh, s-seal their control over the t-timeline.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Toriel said. “I will not allow my child to--”

“That’s not your decision, punk,” Undyne said. Toriel glared at her.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Frisk said, cutting the two of them off before they started again.

“I m-mean, there is one p-problem, though,” Alphys told them. “It’ll t-take time to get everything set up. If he f-finds us before we’re ready…”  
“then the rest of us just have to keep the weed busy,” Sans suggested. “keep ‘im distracted until the deed is done.” He glanced out into the hallway to make sure no one was listening.

“Fine. Then I’ll go with Alphys and Frisk to the lab to keep ‘em safe, and Papyrus and Asgore can go find the flower,” Undyne said. “And Toriel can stay here and watch out for Sans.”

“No,” Frisk said before Toriel could argue. “Flowey was the one that had control of the resets before I came to the Underground. He knows all of you very well. If we want to catch him off guard, we need to something you wouldn’t normally do.”

“Huh? Like what?” Undyne was a little confused.

“He’ll expect you to be wherever Alphys is. Let Asgore come instead,” Frisk suggested. “Papyrus and Undyne can go to one place as a distraction, and say that I’m with Sans and Toriel. Then Sans and Toriel can go to a different place as a second distraction in case Flowey decides to run away.”

“alright. sounds about as good a plan as any,” Sans said after a while. “i’ll drop you guys off in the lab. tori and i can ‘hide’ frisk in my room back in snowdin, and paps can take undyne to that one spot in waterfall. you know the one i’m talking about, bro?”

Papyrus thought for a moment. “DO YOU MEAN… OH! _THAT_ SPOT. YES, I BELIEVE I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. BUT THAT IS A SECRET SPOT, RIGHT? HOW WILL FLOWEY FIND US?”

“got a feeling he knows most of my secret spots by now, bro. that’s the point - we wanna seem predictable, but actually not be.”

“...Very well,” Toriel said reluctantly. “Let us all keep in touch, though. Might we exchange phone numbers?”

“S-Sure thing! I c-can download ours to yours if you’ll j-just let me…” Alphys almost gasped as Toriel pulled out her phone.

“I do apologize for the mess. I had to wrestle this out of a dog’s mouth a short time ago, and I have not had the chance to clean it yet.”

“N-No, I mean… that phone is even older than F-Frisk’s!” Alphys laughed a little. “Here, I’ve g-got some of my portable tools w-with me, I’ll upgrade it f-for you.”

“Oh - okay.” Toriel handed her the phone, and Alphys began to work her magic (both figuratively and literally) on the device while everyone else got ready to depart.

No one heard the soft rustle of the fireplace embers as something popped into the ground.


	15. Keepaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flowey confronts the gang. Will Frisk get their determination before Flowey finds them?

“So, this is what became of the old laboratory,” Asgore said as he walked through the corridors. “I have not been down here since… um… since…”

“I-I wouldn’t think on it t-too hard, Asgore,” Alphys said knowingly. “I, uh, have e-everything set up, I think. I-If you’ll follow me,” she gestured down one of the poorly-lit hallways. Asgore followed her.

Then, seemingly from thin air, a large white creature appeared between the two. It tackled Asgore to the ground and began to lick his face with several different tongues at once.

“Oh! B-Bad Endogeny! D-Don’t tackle the king!” Alphys rushed over to it and waved it away with her hands.

“Oh, it’s quite alright, Alphys,” Asgore laughed. He reached up to rub the creature on the head, and it barked happily. The sound seemed to echo in many different pitches. “I am sure it meant no harm.” He drew his hand back to find his fur coated in a substance not unlike melted marshmallows. “Is this one of the Amalgamates you told me about?”

“U-Um… yeah.”

“Well, at least it… they? They all seem happy.” Endogeny licked his face again in response. His beard was stained purple.

“I guess so…” Alphys chuckled nervously, then led Asgore to the end of the hallway. “Now we just have to--”

“Give  _ me _ the determination!” A sinister laugh filled the air; Asgore and Alphys looked around frantically for its source. “So, doctor, where is it?” The voice asked. “And where’s little Frisk? I’ve really missed them since you so rudely  _ snatched _ them from me last time.” Flowey appeared from the ground in front of Alphys, growing upward to smile in her face.

“H-How did you--”

“Find out about your little plan? Aw, it was easy!” Flowey giggled. His faux cheer was immensely creepy. “You didn’t check the fireplace! Toriel’s fire isn’t hot enough to actually burn anyone unless she wants it to. I heard the  _ entire thing _ .” Alphys gulped and took a few steps back towards the wall. Flowey followed her.

“Looks like you failed yet again, Doctor Alphys,” Flowey snickered. “Wow, you really can’t do  _ anything _ right, can you? It’s hilarious just how pathetic you are.” Flowey dodged a fireball from Asgore.

“I would appreciate it if you stopped harassing my friend,” the king said. His voice was cold, and he had steeled himself for a fight, red trident glowing in the dimness of the room. Alphys dashed away, and before Flowey could react, she flipped a switch on the wall. An array of blue lasers shot down from the ceiling straight through the lizard-monster, and she stood completely still. Endogeny moved to stand in front of her, growling protectively.

Flowey poked at the field with one of his vines experimentally; he hissed as Endogeny bit into it and slammed it into the laser, causing it to spark. “I am afraid you won’t be able to harm her as long as she stays still,” Asgore said. He stepped forward. “Your battle is with me.”

“Yeah, I’d rather not,” Flowey said. He popped back into the ground, and vines began to tear the room apart. Asgore sent out waves of fire, burning a few to a crisp, while others dodged and continued searching. Flowey reappeared. “Ugh, where is the little brat?” He turned to Asgore. “Tell me. Now.”

Asgore responded by plunging his trident towards Flowey. Flowey ducked out of the way and fired a few bullets at Asgore, who shrugged them off. It didn’t have much of an effect on his HP.

Growing frustrated, Flowey sent a barrage of vines towards the monster king. Asgore unleashed a torrent of scorching flames and batted the rest away with his trident. Other than a few scratches, he seemed completely unfazed. Flowey looked around the room; he was going to run out of vines before he beat Asgore in a fair fight. Frisk was nowhere to be found.

“Ugh, I bet the trashbag took them while I was fighting you,” Flowey grumbled to himself. He retreated.

Asgore walked over to the control panel to disengaged the lasers, and Alphys released the breath she had been holding and pulled out her phone. “Thanks, A-Asgore,” she said. Asgore walked over to her and patted her on the shoulder.

“Any time, my friend.” Endogeny walked up to him, and Asgore gave them a pat on the head before remembering the sticky residue it left behind.

Alphys smiled and sent the text.

_ hes headed your way. _

* * *

Sans and Toriel stood outside of the skeleton brothers’ home.

“Okay, I have one!” Toriel said cheerily. “Why did the skeleton want a friend?”

“why?” Sans asked, grinning even more broadly than usual.

“Because she was feeling  _ bonely _ !” Toriel began laughing giddily, and Sans joined in. 

“good one, tori. i gotta say though, all this laughing you’re making me do is really killing my ribs,” he gave her a wink.

Toriel’s eyes lit up at the opportunity. “Do not blame me, Sans! I am not your,” she snickered in anticipation, “scapegoat!”

They both doubled over laughing until Sans’ pocket rang. He pulled out his phone. “we got company,” he said. Toriel nodded and composed herself. A few seconds later, and they heard a rumbling beneath the ground. It rustled around the house for a few seconds before Flowey popped up between them.

“Where’s the brat?” Flowey asked. “They aren’t in the house  _ or _ your secret lab. So where are they?”

Sans chuckled a little bit, and his eye-lights flickered out. “geez, buddy, that’s an invasion of privacy,” he said. “i don’t like people in my room unless i give them permission first.”

“Your room’s a pigsty,” Flowey snorted. “I don’t know how you even live in there. You have a  _ trash tornado _ , for crying out loud!”

Sans shrugged and summoned a gaster blaster. “eh. just to lazy to clean it out, i guess.” He fired, and Flowey dodged to pop up somewhere else.

“Where did you put them, smiley trashbag?” Flowey growled. A fleet of vines and bullets appeared menacingly.

“that’s not how hide an’ seek works  _ bud _ ,” Sans smiled. “ _ Flower _ you guys gonna have a fair game if we tell you where they are?”

“Oh, shut up already!” Flowed shouted, launching an attack straight at Sans’ chest. Sans teleported out of the way, and Toriel countered with a blast of flames. The snow around her melted as she took the offensive, tossing a barrage of fireballs at the flower.

“yeah, we’re not doing that again,” Sans said, appearing behind him. Even the thought of Flowey touching him again made him wince.

“I do not care who you are. You will not harm my child OR my friend,” Toriel said.

“Hmph. Look at you, acting all protective,” Flowey snarled. “Like you  _ actually _ care about them. Some mother you are.” Flowey shouted in pain as he was clubbed by a bone from behind. He turned around to defend against a wave of bone attacks from all different sides as Sans teleported all around. Then, Sans slammed Flowey into the ground with blue magic.

Sans and Toriel walked up to him. “give up yet? ‘cause i’m kinda getting tired of this.”

Flowey growled at him. “You must have dropped them off with your brother.” He popped into the ground and disappeared.

Sans grinned, grabbed Toriel by the wrist, and teleported.

* * *

_ headed your way bro _ , the text on Papyrus’ phone read. He put the quiche he had been coddling back under the bench and gave it a pat. “DON’T WORRY. I’LL COME BACK FOR YOU,” he told it.

“It’s a  _ quiche _ , Papyrus,” Undyne said as she rolled her eye.

“BUT IT’S ALL ALONE OUT HERE! I CAN’T JUST ABANDON IT!”

Undyne sighed, then smacked her fist into her palm as the earth began to shake a little. “About time. I’m looking forward to teaching that little punk a lesson for messing with my friends.”

“CAN I PLEASE AT LEAST  _ TRY _ TALKING TO HIM?” Papyrus asked.

Undyne grumbled under her breath. “Fine. But he lays one filthy vine on you and he gets it. No one’s allowed to throw my buddy around like a ragdoll but  _ me. _ ” She slung an arm around the skeleton’s shoulders companionably. The ground stopped trembling as Flowey appeared in front of them.

“FLOWEY! I AM GLAD YOU FINALLY ARRIVED. THERE ARE A FEW THINGS I WANT TO--”

“Oh, just shut up already, Papyrus. I’m sick of your voice.” Papyrus stuttered to a stop, taken aback. “Where’s the brat, fish-brain?” Flowey turned to Undyne.

“I dunno, but if you talk to Papyrus like that again, I’m gonna start tearing off petals.” She summoned a spear in her hand.

“FLOWEY, YOU ARE BEING VERY RUDE. BUT, MORE IMPORTANTLY, YOU HURT MY FRIEND AND MY BROTHER, AND THAT IS SOMETHING THAT CANNOT STAND. PLEASE, STOP THIS NOW OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO FIGHT YOU.”

Flowey rolled his eyes and grinned. “Sounds like fun!”

* * *

Sans pulled the sheet off of the machine in his basement and opened one of the side panels. Frisk crawled out from among the old wires inside.

“coast is clear, kiddo. go ahead and get comfy, we gotta work fast.” Frisk nodded and hopped up onto the counter, where a bunch of new machinery had been hooked up to the wall. Sans pulled a canister out of his jacket pocket; it glowed with a dim red light. He put it into the machine.

“alright, buddy - there’s a lot of power in that little jar. we can trust you with it, right?” Frisk nodded as Sans pulled out an I.V. from among the machine’s wires and walked over to them. “uh... do you know how these things work? i’ve never really used a needle before.”

“Allow me,” Toriel said, taking it from him. She smiled gently and put it under the child’s skin, before taping it on. Sans activated the machine, and glowing red liquid began to pump into Frisk’s body.

“It’s a good thing you caught Flowey in the fireplace and texted everyone the new plan,” Frisk said.

“i’m a pretty observant guy when i want to be.”

“I guess we were lucky he didn’t notice you noticed,” Frisk said. Sans grinned at the setup.

“yeah, that was pretty lucky. normally everybody _sees right_ _through me_.”

Everyone in the room chuckled.

* * *

Undyne pinned most of Flowey’s vines to the walls as Papyrus guarded her with pillars of bone. She had locked the flower in place with her green magic, and he was running out of vines far faster than she was running out of spears.

Papyrus deflected a wave of bullets with another bone wall, and Undyne leaped over his head to land a grazing hit on Flowey with her spear. Flowey was seething, face demonic and angry and breathing labored.

“You’re gonna regret ever messing with my friends, punk!” Flowey barely deflected a boulder Undyne somehow managed to get a hold of.

“AAARGH! Just tell me where the brat is already!”

“Right here.” Everyone turned to see Frisk walking towards them on the path of Bridge Blooms. The battle froze. “You’re too late, Flowey.”

The flower’s eyes widened. “No… NO!”

* * *

As Sans followed Frisk down the path of floating flowers, he almost became nauseous with déjà vu. That meant the plan had worked, he supposed.

“That’s not fair. That’s NOT FAIR! I HATE YOU, I HATE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!” Flowey started throwing a temper tantrum. Frisk walked towards him.

“It’s over, Flowey. It’s time to give up.” Flowey gave them a sulking glare and disappeared into the ground. 

“guess we did it,” Sans said. He patted them on the shoulder. “so, now what?”

Frisk turned back to him. “Rest.”

Sans chuckled. “i like that plan.” Frisk left to go stay with Toriel and everyone went back to their respective homes for the night, Papyrus with the quiche under his arm. Well, except for Undyne, since Frisk had helped her burn her house down earlier. She went to stay on the skeleton brothers’ couch.

Sans took a shortcut to the True Lab and looked at the latest temporal-dimensional analysis.

Temporal Division 12-H

Status: Current Timeline

Anomaly Total: 17

Sans nodded and looked further back. His smile dropped.

Temporal Division 2-Q

Status: Error!-Type: Terminated

Anomaly Total: 26

Temporal Division 2-R

Status: Error!-Type: Terminated

Anomaly Total: 24

Temporal Division 2-S

Status: Error!-Type: Terminated

Anomaly Total: 23

Sans started scrolling through faster, all the way from the very first timeline. Terminated. Terminated. Terminated.

Temporal Division 4-Z

Status: Error!-Type: Terminated

Anomaly Total: 6

Temporal Division 5-A

Status: In Flux

Anomaly Total: 1

Temporal Division 5-B

Status: Ongoing

Anomaly Total: 2

Sans took a shortcut.

* * *

Something was wrong. Sans had never heard Snowdin so quiet. Things had been weird since noon, but he had just ignored them. It was just another day, after all. He started to think that had been a mistake.

He saw something red fluttering in the wind at the town’s outskirts; he jogged towards it, panicking. It was a scarf.

“stars no, please, no no nonono _ nono— _ “ He dropped to his knees. There was dust on the ground, among the scattered pieces of Papyrus’ battle body. Sans started sobbing. Things will just reset and he’ll be back, he tried to tell himself. It would be okay. Papyrus would be okay, he’d come back. It didn’t help it hurt any less.

A dark laugh echoed through the air; Sans looked up. It was a human, young, and holding a dusty knife. Their smile was almost too wide for their face.

“Have anything original to say, Sansy?” They asked, dashing towards him. Sans struck out with his magic, but nothing hit. They dodged everything, impossibly fast for someone their size. Before he knew what happened, they had closed the distance between them.

Sans felt a searing pain as the knife slashed through his ribs like butter. He practically felt the bone splinter from the impact of the human’s determination, dropping to the ground. The human giggled.

“That’s one hundred and five down. Even your dying gurgles sound exactly the same,” they said. They turned around towards Waterfall. “Oh Undyne, where are you?~”

Sans’ dust mixed into the snow with his brother’s.

* * *

Sans rapped his knuckles on the door to Frisk’s room, softly so as not to wake Toriel. A few seconds later, Frisk opened the door, rubbing their eyes.

“sorry, buddy. emergency,” he whispered. He walked into the room, closed the door, and turned on the lamp. Then he shoved a stack of papers into Frisk’s hands. They looked it over, frowning.

“Chara.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand that's all, folks!  
> Just kidding. I'm continuing this storyline in the next part of the series, Unraveling Threads. If you enjoyed this, please consider checking it out - the first chapter should be out now.  
> Thanks to everyone that decided to give this a read. I hope you have a wonderful day.  
> <3


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